Riva is a high-rise diver a top athlete with millions of fans and a perfectly functioning
human on all levels. Suddenly she rebels breaking her contract and refusing to train. Cameras
are everywhere in her world but she doesn't know her every move is being watched by Hitomi
the psychologist tasked with reining Riva back in. Unquestionably loyal to the system Hitomi's
own life is at stake: should she fail to deliver she will be banned to the peripheries the
filthy outskirts of society. For readers of The Handmaid's Tale The Circle and Brave New
World this chilling dystopia constructs a world uncomfortably close to our own in which
performance is everything. What makes Julia von Lucadou's novel so impressive is the accuracy
with which she describes this high-gloss modern but by no means completely fictional world.
Every detail is so precise that lurking beneath the flawlessness of the text the central
theme of perfidious self-optimization seems to always be present. -Süddeutsche Zeitung Julia
von Lucadou's science fiction is close. Against the backdrop of the gleaming images used to
portray this Orwellian-style city-state the tragic moments of direct human encounters take on
a dimension of clever criticism. -Spiegel Online
