First published 2015
Anna Benz sits in her comfortable Zürich home, surrounded by the trappings of her well-ordered Swiss life. Her banker husband Bruno remains emotionally distant. Their three young children play nearby. At thirty-something, this American expatriate should feel content, but she feels hollow inside. Anna enrolls in German classes and begins Jungian analysis, searching for connection. She starts sleeping with other men, surprised by how easily she slides into infidelity. The affairs multiply. Anna discovers she cannot simply walk away when she wants to end them. Her carefully constructed lies begin collapsing. Each deception demands another. The men in her life make demands she never anticipated. Bruno grows suspicious. Anna realizes she has crossed lines that cannot be uncrossed. Her choices have consequences that spiral beyond her control. She must face what happens when a woman destroys everything she once was and cannot find her way back.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator, women-in-crisis
Setting: Zurich, Switzerland
Period: Contemporary
324 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: emotional-abuse