Los hermosos años del castigo

At the Bausler Institut, a girls' boarding school in the canton of Appenzell, a dense atmosphere of captivity and unspoken sensuality hangs heavy. In these very grounds, where the writer Robert Walser once wandered and where he committed suicide after thirty years in a mental asylum, the narrator's childhood and adolescence unfold, memories she recounts from the perspective of adulthood. Of the Bausler Institut, run by Frau Hofstetter and her husband, the narrator recalls above all the moment she felt drawn to a newcomer, the "new girl": Frédérique, an enigmatic, strict, and strikingly beautiful girl whose indigo eyes hint at something both serene and terrifying. But there are many other young women at the school, from all over the world. Among them, all manner of feelings, desires, and sensations surface, even the voluptuousness of obedience and discipline. And they will never forget each other, just as in prison one does not forget one's cellmate.