“The red flower clusters were jeweled ornaments around the neck of the hunger angel.  From the first frost in early autumn, the orach put on more and more jewelry, until it froze to death.  Poisonously beautiful colors that stabbed our eyes.  The clusters, countless rows of red necklaces along every wayside, adorned the hunger angel.  He had his jewels.  And we had our mouths, which had grown so high and hollow that our steps echoed inside.”

from Herta Müller’s The Hunger Angel.