The Ice Carriers by Anna Enquist

What happens to parents when a teenager runs away from home?

Outwardly everything seems to be all right, but it is an illusion. Their daughter has run away and the parents can’t talk about it, they act as if it never happened. Nico and Louise both have good careers: Loes teaches classical languages and Nico is a psychiatrist who has just been appointed as director of a psychiatric hospital. Both try to impose their will elsewhere, on things outside their relationship. Louise tries to create a garden on sandy soil which is totally unsuited for the lawn and vegetables she wants to plant, Nico insists on turning the psychiatric hospital into an efficient organization despite resistance from all those affected — from the staff to the patients. The failure in the garden frustrates, but the situation in the hospital has more dramatic consequences. With deft restraint Enquist compresses emotion and frustration in this short novel.

ANNA ENQUIST is a musician, a psychoanalyst, a poet and a novelist. One of the best-loved writers of her native Holland, she is also a best-selling author in Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Austria. Her first collection of poetry won the award for new Dutch poetry - the prestigious C. Buddingh' prize - and has been followed by four more collections of poetry, all of which have gone back to press frequently. Her novels have achieved similar acclaim; The Masterpiece, The Secret and Ice Carriers all proved to be runaway bestsellers, each with over 250,000 copies sold. The Secret won the 1997 Dutch Readers' Prize. All are available from The Toby Press.