From Eurotrash, which was published last month by Liveright. Translated from the German by Daniel Bowles.

Up and up we went, into the ever-thinning air. On each side, the craggy rock faces sped back down into the valley below us, as though merely a trick of the light or of perspective. My mother had taken half an Ambien down in the valley station, and then the other half when the gondola began swinging with particular intensity. She asked me to hurry and tell her a story, very quickly please, because she was so terrified. She clung to my arm,…