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Five female protagonists, five very different psychological probes into the character of a student, teenager, mother, wife, ex-wife, adult daughter of her mother and the schoolgirl daughter of an extraordinary father. Olivia is a mother of two children and an English teacher whose marriage has collapsed; Lara’s marriage is merely formal; Veronika, a student, falls victim to a French dating agency and has virtual flirtations with lorry drivers; Svetlana discovers the madness of her maths genius of a father and Ivana, an invalid, is controlled by her domineering mother. Ivana Dobrakovová is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary �������� prose, a claim endorsed by the awards she has won and the increasing number of translations of her work into foreign languages.