From the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of What I'd Rather Not Think About comes
a darkly humorous novel about multigenerational family dynamics and individuality in Dutch
suburbia. An unnamed narrator grows up overshadowed by her unconventional mother an
ex-Jehovah's Witness and former television star with an inferiority complex. Her father is the
head of a psychiatric institution whose only form of parenting is to offer his daughter the
same life advice he dispenses to his patients. Reserved and somewhat aloof he chooses not to
intervene when his wife obsesses about charisma calorie counting and turning their daughter
into a child prodigy. Their daughter strives to meet her mother's expectations and bond with
her father while secretly worrying she lacks the drive or charisma to do anything significant
with her life. When her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer she begins to address their
generational trauma forge a new relationship with her father and discover life on her terms.
In twelve chapters - each reflecting a different phase of life - Posthuma expertly dissects a
fraught family history exposing the absurdity that often lies at the heart of life's most
poignant and challenging moments.
