When Mario abruptly announces he is leaving their fifteen-year marriage, Olga is stranded in a Turin apartment with two young children and a dog. The narrative tracks her rapid descent into a state of sensory and psychological fragmentation over several weeks. She experiences linguistic breakdowns, neglects domestic hygiene, and forgets the basic needs of her dependents while obsessing over her husband's younger mistress. The physical space of the home becomes a trap where broken locks and sudden illness force Olga to confront the loss of her social identity and the raw mechanics of survival.
Readers interested in the psychological breakdown of the domestic sphere will find a clinical look at grief and ego dissolution. This book serves those who want an unvarnished account of how betrayal can dismantle a person's sense of reality and language. The reader finishes the story with a stark understanding of the effort required to reconstruct a functional self after the total collapse of a long-term partnership. It offers a grim, detailed observation of the boundary between civilization and madness within an ordinary household.
- Published
- 2002
- Language
- EN
