On a remote country estate, a renowned obstetrician keeps a young girl that he once carved out of her mother’s body, like slicing out the shimmering pearl from an oyster. It is the dawn of modern gynaecology and the female body appears like a cryptic landscape.

In her new novel, Hanna Nordenhök re-visits the 19^th century with its disciplinary ideas and mechanisms, among male hubris and lonely impoverished children, among dirt, confinement and runaway visions. From a story that is loosely based on historical events and characters emerges a dollhouse existence, characterised by supervision and punishment, assault and incarceration.

Caesaria is part novel, part fairy-tale, and a story that portrays an impossible longing for freedom through suggestive, dreamlike imagery.

SHORTLISTED FOR SWEDISH RADIO'S LITERATURE PRIZE 2021