The Girl at the Door

The girl of the title visits a pregnant woman and says the woman's partner raped the girl while the girl was his student. No names are provided in Italian author Veronica Raimo's English-language debut, The Girl at the Door. The monikers of Him and Her are applied to the couple, who tell their sides of the story in alternating chapters, and the girl is known simply as Girl.

Girl had a consensual affair with Him two years before he met his partner. The novel is set on an island called Miden, run by a utopian society, and the man is a professor of philosophy. One of the society's ruling commissions has convinced the girl she experienced sexual violence during the relationship, something she wasn't aware of, since the relationship was consensual; she even instigated it. The scandal polarizes the island inhabitants, costs the teacher his job, and causes the couple's banishment from the island.

This is a he-said/she-said saga that's sure to incite debate among readers. There's plenty of blame to go around, too, since the relationship went against island rules, yet no one reported it. Complicating things further is the notion that Him and Her aren't passionately in love but are bound together by the impending birth of their child. The method with which the community gathers evidence involving the scandal threatens to ruin their utopia.

Raimo's novel brilliantly examines jealousies, sexual proclivities and gender prejudices, making The Girl at the Door a powerful and timeless statement. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer

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