Heloise Press – förlag

A poetic and mesmerizing novel, Ultramarine pushes us to the very edges of the narrative genre. Narrated in the first person by a female captain, the only woman amongst the crew of a transatlantic ship, Ultramarine reflects on the fears, strengths, and insecurities of female authority. In a ghostly, almost dream-like, atmosphere, the captain agrees to break one of her rules, letting the crew take a dip in the middle of the ocean. Something changes during that unprecedented swim; an uncertain atmosphere takes over their journey and the ship. A simple business trip turned into a true adventure.

In 19th-century Sweden, Caesaria is kept in a doctor's mansion as a trophy: she is the first baby to be born alive from one of his c-sections. In a Gothic ambiance, Caesaria narrates in first person her experiences in the mansion and her encounters with its mysterious inhabitants and visitors. Does she know where she comes from? Where is her mother? Is there a world beyond these walls?

Bibbs is just about to turn thirty-nine. She has been a reality show star but the good life is beginning to slip through her fingers and there seems to be a never-ending flow of unexpected expenditures. Her boyfriend, Baby, has always provided stability and when he dumps her out of the blue, she is also faced with an ultimatum: if she wants to keep the flat she must pay 100 000 Krona within a week. She no longer has access to that kind of money and Bibbs is forced to make extreme decisions. Days & Days & Days is a pitch perfect study of success and destruction, dependence and betrayal, celebrity and anonimity.

From Monday to Saturday, Mary is a young and talented artist in the artistic, bohemian and fringe circles of Havana. But on Sundays, Mary becomes the sex toy of a high official of the regime. Her condition as a woman and artist, bisexual and alienated from Castroism, inevitably pushes her towards social exclusion, and Mary begins to need a reason to remain in Cuba.Featuring a host of unforgettable and irreverent members of the underground Havana, this novel raises important questions which a new whole generation is finding increasingly difficult to ignore.

At the outbreak of WWII, in the Italian colony of Eritrea, Sellass is deserted by Carlo, father of her two children. Now, rejected by both the local and Italiancommunities, she needs to find a way to provide thebare essentials for her children, while takingher anger and frustration out on her daughterMarianna. As time passes by, Marianna will eventually wonder about her origins and start looking for her father.

In the deprived Bulgarian neighborhood of Staro Selo, crime rules people’s lives. Unemployment, violence, and corruption are common concerns. Dimitar becomes wealthy by running Staro Selo in terror. But old Elena, a witch-like character with a gift for healing will not shy away from the injustices her neighbors are forced to endure. A decision that will have consequences for her family.

A collection of short stories flirting with the surreal and Kafkaesque: a father whose ashes turn into a chatting plant, a boyfriend whose hand becomes a broccoli, a group of investigative aliens fascinated by idol culture. Yuri’s world is permeated with humour, emotions, and style, giving us a refreshing perspective into the complexities of human nature and contemporary Korean society.Lee Yuri's writing stands out for introducing an unexpected and bizarre fantastical element into a hyper-realistic domestic environment in a hypnotizing combination of humor, absurdity, and wit. Stylistically, she sits comfortably between the literary and genre fiction categories.

In the Swiss mountains, Romi and Szibilla arrive at Nora’s childhood home to find their longtime friend has retreated into silence. With Nora refusing to speak and her mother keeping them at arm’s length, Romi and Szibilla are forced into an uneasy time together over the next five days. Their mutual acquaintance will bring out their own insecurities as friends, lovers, and mothers, unexpectedly confronted with themselves and their own choices. This is a novel that masterfully blends daily-life reflections with suspense. Insightful yet easy to read, readers will be captivated by the mystery surrounding the silent woman. A novel impossible to put down.Told in alternating voices, Woman, Idle explores two main questions: What kind of women have I become? What kind of women do I want to be?

When Ali learns that she is expecting a child with CFC syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects the heart, face, skin, and development, her world is shaken up. Doctors tell her that her baby will not even survive pregnancy but, against all odds, Carys is born. In this powerful literary memoir, Ali shares her journey as the mother of Carys, reflecting on motherhood, identity, the female body, and the able and dis-abled body, while exploring social and political definitions of normality. This memoir also interrogates how pregnancy, aging, and disability are all appropriated by public discourses without addressing individual needs. Isaac brings forth a myriad of non-normative bodies in a beautiful narrative that feels powerful and liberating.For readers of Claire Kilroy, Anne Enright, Deborah Levy.Comparable titles: Lifeblood by Nina Holland nd

A collection of urban short stories about the creative lives of London millennials. Failed aspirations, romantic fiascos, professional rivalries, and much more. This is a book packed with fake-it-until-you-make-it characters.Nat sets Victor and Cleo up on a blind date, to their mutual disappointment. A married woman has seven other men, or does she? Luckless Vicky lodges with glamorous Lara and suffers a romance with toxic loser Damian. A struggling artist, caught between two romantic trysts, is promised by a street fortune teller that it's all about to change. Graduate Joe moves to London only to find his sought-after internship and social scene do not meet his expectations. Alex is in love with Paul. Paul is only half-in-love with Alex and totally in love with heroin. Candace and Jacob fear their vulnerable friend Jill will kill herself. A married man, split from his mistress, gets a surprise invitation from her for one last hurrah. What he finds in the Soho Hotel is not quite what he anticipated. Two schoolgirl frenemies fall in and out of touch in adult life. One seeks fame, the other to be a real artist. Unspoken passions and jealousies give way to a life-changing transaction.

From the author of Caesaria comes Wonderland, a spellbinding study of the many faces of deception. A novel that, with clear prose, depicts a chameleon-like existence where truth and lies are never easily separated. It follows three different characters, wandering an ominous contemporary world saturated with abandonment and false mirrors. On the Pacific Coast, a homeless woman travels between cities and towns pretending to be a child. At a hotel in Athens, two rival Catalan journalists become entangled in a risky game of fact and fiction. And in a luxury villa in Southern Sweden, a housewife chooses to lie at the expense of others in order to maintain the only life she can tolerate living. Around them appears a hall of mirrors inhabited by a range of unreliable characters: bluffing children, doped up martial artists, ghostwriters, dishonest politicians, ecocriminals,and fashionable jetsetters so disfigured by plastic surgery that there seems to be nothing left of their original selves. All of them individuals trying to find their way in that slippery world of post-truth that we've gotten to know as our own.

A lyrical and intimate account of a mother's last journey by the author of Thirsty Sea. Erica Mou comes back with an uncompromising exploration of the choices we make when life brings us to the edge.Erica is on top of her game. In her early 20s, she can touch stardom with the tips of her fingers. Gigs are more frequent, tours are longer, record sales increase, but when her mother Lucia breaks devastating news, Erica needs to find a way to navigate her demanding career as a singer with an aching heart.In this tender exchange of voices years later, we discover Lucia through the lenses of her own diary, and Erica’s memories. Erica has finally found the courage to retrace her mother's last nine months, as she embarks in her own journey to become a mother.

A psychological portrait of all the insecurities and challenges of a young woman in a restless search for her own place in life. Switching between different narrative modes - poetry and comedy, memoir and stream of consciousness - Thirsty Sea chronicles a day in the life of a young woman in a state of free-fall, haunted by her past, sidestepping her present, and stalked by a future she is reluctant to meet. But while Maria seems trapped in her impossible, maze-like consciousness, today, she will take control back.

Rahel and Fenna grew up in an all-female household with their mother and her female partner. Now Rahel strives to reproduce the traditional family unit but she is haunted by an unsettling pregnancy, postnatal depression and compulsive breastfeeding, while having mixed feelings about her singing career. Meanwhile, Fenna wonders whether she consented to the intercourse with Luc which left her pregnant. What Concerns Us is a punchy contemporary read that scrutinises gender roles within our society, examining what it means to be a mother and the nature of femininity, as well as how to remain independent in a variety of different types of relationship.

The Memory of the Air is a sophisticated and introspective narrative about gaslighting. As the narrator shares with us her memories about a past relationship, we discover the small details hidden behind psychological abuse until landing into a major event in the narrator’s life.

Satisfaction is an intense, introspective novel that explores the intimate thoughts, feelings and impressions of Mme Akli, a French woman living in Algeria in the late 1970s. Mme Akli is a possessive mother in conflict with her own sexuality in a country that feels alien to her. The acquiescence of Catherine Bousba, mother of her son’s best friend Bruce, will cause a turmoil of emotional events. Through a narrative charged with sensuality and repressed passion, we navigate Mme Akli’s complex and paradoxical feelings towards her own son, Catherine, Bruce and the Algerian landscape.

Rooted in the oral tradition of storytelling, Industrial Roots is an exceptional collection of interwoven domestic vignettes narrated by different female characters. The stories in this book concern mainly the daily experiences of blue-collar life amongst the members of a working class family. A woman that feels the urge to steal babies, an alcoholic husband, cousins in love with the same man, aging parents, absent fathers - all have a place in the stories these women tell. Lisa Pike uses a variety of registers, from slang to standard English, to shape the characters' stories. A playful use of the English language that dissolves the boundaries between the oral and written traditions.

Set on a farm in the Eastern Cape, and taking place over one day, the novel is a wrought meditation on motherhood and our destructive relationship to the Earth. A former geneticist, Kate is now an award-winning maker of organic cheese. She relies on the farm's routine to hold steady as her day teeters on a knife's edge: her estranged daughter is in London, waiting for her conjoined twins to survive surgery. Meanwhile, Kate's employee Nosisi's son is undergoing a rite of passage. Forbidden to have contact with him during this traditional passage into the world of manhood she anxiously awaits his return. Breaking Milk is an evocative exploration of motherhood at the crossroads of the South African landscape, environment and science.