Boulder: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023
The grim and lovely follow-up to Eva Baltasar’s acclaimed Permafrost explores the darker sides of love and motherhood for two women determined to live as they like.
Working as a cook on a merchant ship, a woman comes to know and love Samsa, who gives her the nickname ‘Boulder’. When the couple decide to move to Reykjavik together, Samsa announces that she wants to have a child. She is already 40 and can’t bear to let the opportunity pass her by.
Boulder is less enthused but doesn’t know how to say no – and so finds herself dragged along on a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien. With motherhood changing Samsa into a stranger, Boulder must decide where her priorities lie, and whether her yearning for freedom will trump her yearning for love.
This book has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. Find out more here.
You can find reading guides to the books on the International Booker Prize 2023 shortlist on the International Booker Prize website.
Join our mailing list
Get our newsletters to stay up to date with programme news, resources, news and more.
