ABOUT
THE BOOK

What happens to parents when a teenager runs away from home?
Outwardly everything seems to be all right, but it is an illusion. Their daughter has run away and the parents can’t talk about it, they act as if it never happened…
Nico and Louise both have good careers: Louise teaches classical languages and Nico is the director of a psychiatric hospital. Both try to impose their will elsewhere, on things outside their relationship; Louise on the sand-swept land of her garden, Nico on what her perceives as the disorganisation of the hospital he runs – despite resistance from those who would be affected by his proposed changes. The failure in the garden frustrates, but the situation in the hospital has more dramatic consequences.