Hurt and Comfort: Reviewing M.Shaw's "One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve"

Every now and then there comes a book that I read digitally and feel so strongly about that I'll want to own a physical copy. I recently found that book in a wonderful, allegorical novella about identity, aggression, estrangement, inner conflicts, desires, solitude and maybe even a little about hope and despair: One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve. I just loved it. 
Two halves of a dead man, loosely joint still, re-awaken to life on top of an autopsy table. They grew a thin membrane over their severed sides that holds in each organ that was sliced in two. They walk out of that room, holding on tightly to the only thing they know – each other.  

Not a mirror image or a photo, or a copy; each one looking at a body much like his own, and yet an entire separate person.

Their so-to-say postpartum life gradually develops into a regular life of two; a regular life where rent needs to be paid and needs have to be met, where inner thoughts take their course, where wishes, envy, relief, even pressure may surface and maybe motivate actions. Some day it is over and then it is time to confront the meaning behind it all. And the meaning, the bottom line of it all is a cruel one here.

They hurt themselves, over and over, because it comforts them. Because it's the only thing that's familiar.

The very stripped, prosaic writing goes really well with the concise, to the point storytelling and is exactly to my taste. Not a word is wasted here, it is kept short and meaningful. I also really felt for the characters or half-characters to be precise, their actions and motives were comprehensible and to a degree even relatable to me.

What can I say, this was a perfect read that I can only genuinely recommend, I'm a fan!