The Bedroom Upstairs

Rosella Postorino’s debut novel is a chronicle of cruelty and desire and of the mystery of human relationships.

Fifteen-year-old Ester lives in a small, seaside town with her anxious mother, a schoolteacher, and her father, who lies immobile in his bedroom upstairs following a work accident ten years earlier. At school, she has only one friend whose father makes her feel protected; he reminds her of her own father before his accident. Torn between pleasure and disgust, she seeks out an older man who will explore her body, a body with which she herself is not yet familiar. An oedipal story about this young woman’s complicated relationship and sexual desires.