Freud's Sister

[2] It was subsequently translated by Christiana Kramer into English and published in the United States of America in 2012.

Because Adolfina and her sisters are Jewish, they are afraid that they will share the fate of the Jews in Germany.

Her mother loved Sigmund more than all the other children because when she was pregnant with him an old woman told her that he would be a great man.

His professor's son, Rainer was always sad and his parents thought that him playing with other children would help.

After Rainer moved away Adolfina started taking drawing classes with another friend, Sarah.

At one of these parties they met Klara, the sister of Gustav Klimt; a woman who was very involved in women's rights movements.

During one of these visits she saw a man there who had the previous day tried to commit suicide by jumping into the Danube river.

After the abortion, she was so distraught at losing her one chance at motherhood and what she believes is her purpose in life that she moved into the mental hospital with Klara.

Adolfina is remembering her life and thinking about how she will forget everything, for “that will be my death – that forgetting – I will forget.” Goce Smilevski writes in the Author's Note of Freud’s Sister that he was surprised by the lack of knowledge on the sisters that Freud left behind in Vienna to die in a concentration camp.

[1] All he could find out about her from letters was that she lived alone, her family felt pity for her, and while her mother treated her badly, she cared for her parents until they died.

[1]” This novel was translated by Christiana Kramer, a Slavic and Balkan language professor at the University of Toronto.

Not only that, but Oates also has some harsh words for how Adolfina is portrayed, describing the character as "scarcely articulate, and exasperatingly passive, to a degree that suggests mental retardation.

[3]" Smilevski responded to this criticism by arguing that people who display these characteristics do not have to be mentally challenged, and through Adolfina's depression she is more able to examine herself and "the meaning of existence.