This was such a weird read and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. In this book, a sixty-year-old woman hides under the stairs and becomes increasingly ostracised by a community which believes she has gone mad as she reflects on sex, god, and the metaphysical. It's a strange premise definitely, and the execution, with an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative style and lyrical prose, made it feel all the more bizarre and oddly hypnotic.

If you want a short, weird read that is probably unlike anything else you've previously read, and enjoy slightly unhinged or nonsensical narrative styles, I'm sure you'd enjoy this. For me, however, I think it was just a bit too out there and even though I enjoyed the themes and ideas I don't think I connected with the book enough for it to make a huge impact.

3.75/5

Although a short read, it was a bit of a difficult read. There are no chapters to break up this monolog; there are also no quotations around what the people are saying. It was a bit difficult to figure out who was saying what. However, once I got used to the writing and figured out who was saying what, this was an interesting story. A little eccentric, but interesting.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading this, it had that concept that I was looking for and enjoyed the way this was told. It had that element that was promised in the description. I though the story worked overall and had that adult feel that I was expecting. Hilda Hilst wrote a great book in this and was excited to read more.