Agnes Lidbeck

Petra and Johannes seem made for one another. A lawyer and a doctor. Well brought up, ambitious. Their friends Julia and Axel are different - from them, and from each other. Julia fights for her convictions. Axel manoeuvres his way to political power. Desire moves like an undertow between them all, dangerous and destabilising. Inconvenient truths are buried, but can only stay that way for so long. Meanwhile, the country around them changes. Laws tighten. Freedoms are curtailed. People begin to disappear. The personal and the political collide. It is easier, at first, to look away than to let the facts in. Until they arrive at the door. 'What a writer Agnes Lidbeck is - bold, blisteringly intelligent, deliciously playful.'- Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies

The social contract is non-negotiable. The woman must be a mother. The woman must be desirable. The woman must be a caregiver. When Anna gives birth, she surrenders completely to motherhood, reshaping her body, identity and purpose, shielding herself from the burden of her own desires. But as her marriage crumbles and her children grow independent, she needs a new role. An affair with an ageing writer, Ivan, offers her a new narrative, a way to rewrite herself. But no role lasts forever, and sooner or later Anna must confront the woman beneath the performance.