A decades-long, seemingly rock-solid marriage suddenly falls apart during one hot Stockholm summer in this addictive domestic drama that marks the American debut of #1 Swedish bestselling author Moa Herngren. There are two sides to every story. . . Bea couldn''t be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She''s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband of thirty-two years, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters, and recuperating from the stress of daily life in the company of her beloved in-laws. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. But as the hours pass, Niklas doesn''t come home. Bea''s irritation soon gives way to panic: could something terrible have happened? She soon learns that though her husband is fine, their marriage is not. With a callous, three-word text, Niklas shatters Bea''s world. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband is insisting on a divorce. While Bea is distraught and confused, is the split really coming out of the blue? Written with the warmth and empathy that have made her insightful, page-turning family novels bestsellers in her native Sweden, Moa Herngren raises thoughtful questions about why relationships fall apart: Is the person who leaves always the bad guy? What emerges once you begin scratching the surface of what seems like a clear-cut situation? Told from dual perspectives, The Divorce is a gripping domestic drama that deftly explores the complexities of modern marriage. Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies

Autorentext

Moa Herngren is the Swedish author of the gripping and highly acclaimed relationship dramas The Mother-in-Law and The Divorce. Herngren is also a journalist, former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, and a highly sought-after manuscript writer, as well as the co-creator and writer of the Netflix hit show Bonus Family. She lives in Sweden.

Klappentext

An addictive domestic drama set during one hot Stockholm summer that marks the American debut of #1 Swedish bestselling author Moa Herngren.

“The collapse of a thirty-two-year marriage is depicted with an even hand in this book, which amounts to two parallel novels: one about a woman 'feverish with confusion,' who feels that she was abandoned without warning, and another about a man who has been grappling with the end of his relationship for months. . . . As Herngren stitches together the couple’s perspectives, she writes with a sharp neutrality, never overplaying the book’s many tense moments of discovery or languishing in the wife’s despair.” —The New Yorker

There are two sides to every story . . .

Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband of thirty-two years, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters, and recuperating from the stress of daily life in the company of her beloved in-laws. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. As the hours pass, Niklas doesn’t come home, and Bea’s irritation soon gives way to panic as she imagines what kind of disaster might have happened to delay his return.

What she soon learns will change her life forever: while her husband is fine, their marriage is not. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband wants to leave her. But while this might seem like sudden insanity to Bea, for Niklas, it’s anything but… 

Writing with the warmth and empathy that have made her insightful, page-turning family novels bestsellers in her native Sweden, Moa Herngren raises thoughtful questions about why relationships fall apart: Is the person who leaves always the bad guy? What emerges once you begin scratching the surface of what seems like a clear-cut situation? Told from dual perspectives, The Divorce is a gripping novel that deftly explores the complexities of modern marriage.

Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies