A realistic and poetic female voice to denounce violence against women's bodies and speak about love.

In this novel, mothers are monstrous (unspeaking, complicit, insane), and fathers too (incestuous, absent). Their children, like Mary and Frank, grow up, get away as soon as they can, and scrape by in shattered lives. Theirs are the dead-end voices, from ordinary people crushed by life, but exalted by their courage to live and their care for others.When Mary and Frank meet, something gives; suddenly, there's a promise of somewhere else to go. Summoning Sartre, Sylvia Plath, and Emily Dickinson, Marlène Tissot explores the nature of resilience with a realist dose of human frailty and unshakeable bad luck.