Institut Ramon LLull

Hana is an exiled woman in her forties who is haunted by her fantasies of revenge for her experiences at the Vilna Vlas camp during the Balkan War, who still struggles with the poisonous pain that runs through her veins. Sara has just turned eighteen years old and is eager to start her adult life when she finds out a shocking truth: she is not genetically related to the family who raised her in Barcelona.

Marta Carnicero Hernanz, in short alternating chapters inspired by true events, brings the two women’s parallel stories closer and closer in a series of psychological reveals that heartbreakingly call into question the systematic violence against women that is so often collateral damage of wars. Her cogent, lucid prose steeped in empathy shines a light on how we are shaped by inherited trauma— both personal and societal—through the lens of motherhood.