Which is dramatic, yes. But also understandable, because reading is not just a hobby. For many of us it is a coping mechanism, a joy, an identity, a private home we carry around.
So when the door won’t open, it can feel like something has gone wrong with you.
It is that hollow, floaty sensation. The strange silence. The way you keep thinking about characters like they are people you used to know. The way every other book looks faintly irrelevant, like trying to date too soon after a heartbreak.
It is such a wonderful book, and told in just 150 pages. It has the feel of a much longer novel because it packs so much in. Such a worthy Booker Prize winner.