Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. She is the author of several short-story collections, including Alice and The Summerhouse, Later, as well as the highly acclaimed novels Where Love Begins and Daheim, which was a Der Spiegel bestseller and was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives and works in Berlin.Katy Derbyshire is the translator of contemporary German writers including Inka Parei, Heike Geissler, Olga Grjasnowa, Annett Gröschner and Christa Wolf. Her translation of Clemens Meyer's Bricks and Mortar won the 2018 Straelen Prize for Translation.

Very occasionally a book comes along that feels as if it were written just for me, and this is one of those rare books. All my life's defining concerns, as a writer and a woman, are here, and Hermann conveys and examines them with generosity and honesty and insight. This book stimulated my mind and touched me to the core.