First published 2023
Princess Caroline lies still on a sunny afternoon, pretending to sleep while her keepers play cards nearby. The moment they look away, she slips into her maid's vehicle and drives straight through the palace gates. For the first time in years, Caroline tastes freedom. She boards the first available flight, but her liberty proves short-lived. Guards wait for her at her destination and drag her back to the marble walls that confine her. This botched escape breaks something inside Caroline permanently. She has tried to flee before, and she knows she will try again. Caroline doubts she can ever truly get away from her gilded cage. Yet somewhere in her desperation, she begins to imagine another kind of liberation that might still be possible.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, gilded-cage
Setting: Africa
Period: 21st-century
400 pages · Paperback · Dutton
Content warnings: mental-illness