Years have passed since Stella last saw Ivo. When he returns, the reunion of their unconventional family will change the course of her life. As children, Stella and Ivo grew close as their parents embarked on an affair. As teenagers their own relationship would be the cause of scandal. As adults, they set out on an odyssey to uncover the truth.

Nino Haratischvili was born in Georgia in 1983, and is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and theatre director. At home in two different worlds, each with their own language, she has been writing in both German and Georgian since the age of twelve. In 2010, her debut novel, Juja, was nominated for the German Book Prize, as was Die Katze und der General in 2018. Her third novel, The Eighth Life, has been translated into many languages and is an international bestseller. It won the Anna Seghers Prize, the Lessing Prize Stipend, and the Bertolt Brecht Prize, and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2020. She lives in Berlin.