Rights Information

World rights available.

Iona, heavily pregnant and homeless, breaks into an empty house in a southern German village one night
in the pouring rain. She is looking for her father, Tahvo, whom she has never met, never wanted to meet.
But now she needs money. Tahvo has disappeared, though, and instead, Iona meets his neighbour: Tine,
who loves her adopted daughter dearly but has never gotten over not being able to get pregnant and give
birth, had an affair with Tahvo and she misses him. Karolin, who knew Tavho in Berlin many years ago, runs
the only restaurant in the village. She too struggles with the ghosts of the past and her memories.
The three women travel to Tahvo’s homeland of Finland to look for him. On the journey, their different
ideas of motherhood, life and who Tahvo really is start to clash. But they also experience that it is not the
absent man who determines their lives and that they should better bury some illusions.
Marie Malcovati’s delicate, sharp-witted novel tells a story about what it means to let go of the things that
destroy us. Of what it means to be a woman, a daughter, a mother — and if these roles can still hold any
form of truth about ourselves.

Author Biography

Marie Malcovati, born in 1982, studied theater and film studies at the University
of Manchester and screenwriting at the Baden-Württemberg Film
Academy. After lengthy stays in Italy, France and Great Britain, she also
works as a translator. In addition to screenplays and radio features, she writes
short stories and novels. Her debut novel After Everything I Had Almost
Done For You was published in 2016. Marie Malcovati lives near Freiburg.