Summary

After the narrator’s parents divorce, he and his brothers visit their father in a temporary apartment where the father is volatile and the boys try to manage his moods. The narration then shifts to Ina on a summer holiday with her boyfriend, Hector, and his family, where Ina struggles to speak honestly about her own family and where Hector presses her for stories about her past. Back in 1996, the narrator recalls the ache of his father’s absence and his immersion in basketball at KFUM Söder, including the team’s tense home game and the complicated presence of Anastasia, who seems to move between the boys’ world and her own burdens.

Ina eventually brings Hector to meet her mother, Selima, at a lunch that feels staged and wary, with Ina controlling the setting while Selima scrutinizes Hector and speaks in ways...