Cesárea

In Liltuna, a remote rural estate in 19th-century Sweden, Dr. Eldh, a renowned obstetrician, keeps an orphan girl named Cesarea as a trophy: she was the first baby he delivered via cesarean section, and he celebrated by giving her that name. The young woman's life is marked by abuse, confinement, and her encounters with the enigmatic inhabitants of the estate, but when the possibility of a different life arises, she is confronted with a harsh reality: no one has taught her how to be free. One of the most powerful and distinctive novels in recent Swedish fiction, Cesarea is a coming-of-age story as atypical as it is hypnotic. It delves into the scientific obsession with the female mind and body throughout the ages, while offering an invaluable analysis of the vulnerability of youth, and of women, when they fall into the hands of faceless institutions.