In the early 1980s, Alejandro arrives in Norway alone as a refugee from Chile. He has fled Pinochet’s military dictatorship, but has also left his family behind. At the refugee centre, a Norwegian woman takes notice of him. Perhaps she senses his loneliness? They have a child together, and they name him Pablo.

Pablo grows up with a father he hardly ever sees, whom he occasionally follows through the streets of Oslo. He gets together with Emily and has a son with her. But Pablo is not someone you can rely on. He takes no responsibility, doesn’t keep his promises, and runs away, time and time again.

The novel’s narrator cannot let go of Emily. In an attempt to get as close to her as possible, the narrator moves into Emily’s neighbourhood. Thus unfolds Maria Navarro Skaranger’s distinctive form of critical empathy in a novel that is both a furious indictment of all the world’s bad fathers and a thoughtful exploration of society’s perception of motherhood.