Description
They read Jesper Juul, share the care of their son equally, and know that "all emotions are okay" and that a child cannot always cope with them. Their carefully furnished flat reflects their personalities, and the table brings them together for everyday meals, yet an unexpected incident sets off an avalanche of doubts and mutual accusations, shattering the ideal image of their own family and laying bare the fragility of its relationships with the world around it.
When seven-year-old Luca is suspected of behaving inappropriately towards a girl in his class, his father refuses to believe the teacher's words, while his mother becomes convinced that "girls don't make such things up". The shocking situation forces them to confront their own past and the questions they have been running away from until now.
Jessica Lind tells the story in a cinematic way, building an atmosphere thick with tension, straight out of a psychological horror, while at the same time touching on issues close to all of us: she asks about the limits of trust in those closest to us, but also in our own feelings and judgements, and writes about responsibility, guilt, traumas passed down from generation to generation, the ideologisation of beliefs and social ostracism.
Can children be "little monsters"? Are adults always responsible for their destructive impulses? How can one be a good-enough parent at a time when larger communities have fallen apart? Do family secrets protect us from pain? What should be said, and what should be kept to oneself?
Jessica Lind has written one of the most moving novels about contemporary parenthood.