What do Miranda July, Markus Werner, and Wilhelm Genazino have in common? Read this book and you will find out. Maria has time. So she often sits on a bench in front of the church during the day, observing the hustle and bustle, the comings and goings of people who have goals and little time. The unemployed textile saleswoman knows her fabrics well; she understands what goes together, what conceals weaknesses and highlights strengths. In her case, it’s more complicated: which strength can make her age forgotten in a market that doesn’t need her? She is not old, but her life is still moving backward, passing by its possibilities, dreams, and accidents: Otto, whom she forgets in the vegetable section, Walter, the Elvis impersonator with the sad demeanor who makes her a widow, Eduard, who returns with another woman from the city, and her younger sister, who is so much of a mother that she treats Maria like a child.