A powerful novel of guilt, love, and the home it’s so hard to escape.

Jeanne learns at a young age to stand up to her father’s violence, even as her sister and mother surrender to it. Severely beaten, she is shocked when the local doctor does nothing. From then on, she thrives on hatred for her father and contempt for everyone in her Alpine village, cowards one and all. Boarding school is a brief respite, but her sister’s suicide plunges her into depression in Lausanne, where she’s taken refuge, devoured by a rage to forget. Will she ever know love or a normal life? Jollien-Fardel’s harsh, rhythmic prose forcefully evokes the human costs of breaking free of the past.