Rattlesnake - Maja B. Kranjc

Rattlesnake is a stunning debut novel that takes a close look at an (almost) ordinary Slovenian family, and within it, especially the relationship between mother Vera and daughter Nina. The space between them has always been full of hidden resentments, shame and longing, which later also determine two other important relationships for Nina; the one she has with herself and the rattle that has been bubbling inside her relentlessly since she was a child, and the one she establishes with her partner Bojan. Although he is not quite what she would like, the protagonist feels upon their first meeting that he is "a hand that she might be able to tame", and how could she not, when with this very hand, shaking from too much alcohol and the blows she will inflict on him, she will relive everything she knows from her primary family over and over again...

Will Nina's rattle ever fall silent? Will the wind of everything she drags behind her ever subside, or will she learn its language and listen to it? A masterfully written novel about the intergenerational transmission of patterns, motherhood, domestic violence, abandonment, and everything else that defines us and raises the question of how free our decisions really are.