A Short Introduction to Anneliese is the second volume in author James Elkins' multi-volume mega-novel Five Strange Languages being published by Unnamed Press, all of which trace the final year of Samuel Emmer's life before he disappears. When Samuel Emmer meets unemployed biologist Anneliese Glur for dinner during his stopover in Frankfurt, he has no notion of what to expect. Anneliese is an old friend and former colleague of his boss, and he agrees to dinner for no other reason than he has nothing better to do. As it turns out, Anneliese is a torrent-of observations; digressions; theories, hypotheses and resentments. She complains about her niece, who lives with her and her brother Paul (also, quietly, at dinner), and their uncle Hans, whose dementia haunts Anneliese's concerns about the state of her own mind. More crucially, she deconstructs the 'awfulness' of language, calling it an ill-fitting suit, and challenges the validity of memory. Most surprising is what Samuel comes to