Rosa is not cut out for motherhood, at least not of the functional kind. She is an outrageously nasty piece of work: overbearing, iron-willed and diabolical. Among the casualties is her daughter, Sulfia, who endures the worst of Rosa's machinations. When Sulfia brings into the world an exceptional child by the name of Aminat, the child seems at first destined to become yet another pawn in Rosa's game - until she finds the strength to rebel in the only way possible, by running away. Years later, Aminat reappears on a popular talent show, setting Rosa back on her trail...

Alina Bronsky
Alina Bronsky is the author of Broken Glass Park, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, named a Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, Just Call Me Superhero and Baba Dunja's Last Love. Born in Yekaterinburg, an industrial town at the foot of the Ural Mountains in central Russia, Bronsky relocated with her family to Berlin when she was thirteen. Author's Web site (in German)

• Dec 12 2016
  Triple Choice Tuesday: Poppy Peacock Pens
  — Reading Matters