Selma is not at all happy about her friends’ budding interest in boys. She thinks life should stay the way it was, when the most important thing was friendship with other girls. She is angered and disquieted by the boys’ adolescent approaches and rebuffs them all. However, during a brief sojourn at the family outfarm in the mountains she meets a young man, a stranger, whom she finds highly attractive.

Torun Lian possesses an uncommon understanding of the way young girls’ minds work, which enables her to write with remarkable empathy. Both convincing and entertaining, this story of Selma’s endeavours to keep love and emotional attachments at a safe distance and her gradual maturation also affords a thoughtful insight into adolescence.