First published 2020
On what starts as a routine morning, Maju boards a bus with Cora, the young girl she cares for, and makes an impulsive decision that changes everything. She takes Cora and disappears into São Paulo. Cora's mother Fernanda, a busy executive consumed by her crumbling marriage and extramarital affair, doesn't immediately realize her daughter is missing. Her husband remains emotionally distant, overwhelmed by their household troubles. As Maju moves through the city with Cora, she feels the eyes of other nannies watching her. Fernanda calls them the "white army" of caregivers who populate the wealthy neighborhoods. Paranoia grips Maju as she tries to stay ahead of discovery. The abduction forces each character to face what they've been avoiding. Fernanda must confront her failures as a mother. Her husband grapples with his detachment from family life. Maju searches for meaning and control in an act that grows more desperate by the hour. The story exposes the fault lines running beneath seemingly stable lives and examines how people fight to reclaim purpose when their worlds fracture.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, thriller, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, introspective, morally-complex, tense, thought-provoking
Tropes: fractured-family, impulsive-decision, multiple-perspectives, unreliable-morality
Setting: São Paulo, Brazil
Period: Contemporary
208 pages · Paperback · Europa Editions
Content warnings: kidnapping