Aleksandra has issues with her voice. Stress makes her stutter, and her life is one of stress. She can only speak clearly on stage, freed by the words of the character she plays. Then, when Aleksandra befriends her new neighbour Megan, and through her meets charming, handsome Ruben, it seems she has discovered a doorway into a different world, and a different Alek. But Ruben wants Aleksandra to play a particular role for him, and it is one that will come close to destroying her. Following in the vein of iconoclasts Melvin Burgess and Louise O'Neill, it is testament to the power of Manuela's writing that she was rendered 'voiceless' when this novel was banned in Italy and withdrawn from sale.
