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"We live so many lives within our lives—smaller lives with people who come and go, friends who disappear, children who grow up—and I never know which of these lives is meant to serve as the frame."

In her English language debut, Ia Genberg explores what it means to live a meaningful life in a world of chaos and disorder. Told through four vignettes into particular relationships in the unnamed narrator's life—past loves, friends and family—we learn less about the main character as a person of action and more as a person of being.

"As far as the dead are concerned, chronology has no import and all that matters are the details, the degree of density, this how and what and everything to do with who."

In the vein of Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy, the story is less concerned with narrative propulsion—in fact the narrator seems to reject or counter her partner's constant forward movement—and settles more into the seeing, the observing of everyday life. Of years of her life. Decades. Things once forgotten and remembered in a fevered state. What about a book that lingers on your shelf inscribed by a lost love? Or a dress ripped up the side that recalls a New Year's Eve party from the old millennium? This is the detritus, or perhaps treasures, of a normal life—the details that tell the full story, if any story, any life, is really complete.

I was engaged, first, by her skilled writing and Kira Josefsson's flawless translation. The prose, each thought, flows so seamlessly into the next you can't help but be compelled forward by an otherwise 'mundane' story.

Then, as each chapter unfolds and the narrator brings you into various spheres of her life through these relationships, you get to see a more intimate side of the speaker without every getting the full picture.

My only wish was for it to be a bit longer. Selfishly because I was enjoying it so much I wanted more information, more detail; but also because I felt the story a bit choppy and it was just in the final section I started to feel it fully coming together. I did appreciate and enjoy the ending, though perhaps one extra glimpse into her life through another friendship, or lover, or sibling relationship would have made these stronger for me.

Nonetheless, there's plenty to enjoy here and if you want an autofiction of a woman pondering life and her past while breathing hope rather than despair, this would be a great addition to your shelves.