Summary

Book 1 begins with an unnamed narrator who has decided to write about white things. She thought about the need to experience her future, the next part of her life. She has recently moved to Warsaw, Poland, for a writer’s residence.

She thought about what her parents told her about how her older sister was born prematurely. Her older sister had died after living less than two hours. Her mother had given birth to her when she was home alone on a winter's day. She had not expected her water to break that day. She dressed the baby in a gown she had just made and repeatedly told her not to die. Shortly afterward, her baby died. She felt the coldness seep into the newborn’s body.

Then the narrator thought back to when during a radio interview, someone had asked her to...