Whiteout

In the first part of this novel, M travels through a snowy landscape to visit her father, who is living with dementia. In the mind of the man who raised her single-handedly, nothing remains but noise.

Part two focuses on Iris, a young mother struggling with the emptiness of early parenthood. Exhausted and dispirited, she tries to tackle her depression by writing daily notes about her feelings and the world around her.

In the final part of the trilogy, we return to M, as she approaches her final destination.

After completing doctoral research into meteorological phenomena in the modern novel, M is working on the digitisation of a literary archive. When aphasia starts to affect her memory and speech, her words disappear one by one, and with them her sense of self. She writes notes to herself with instructions on how to maintain her stability in a world for which she no longer has any words.

‘Whiteout’ is a moving novel about the boundaries of language and memory, and about the complex bond between parents and children. With discerning observations and stylistic precision, Six makes the melancholy of leave-taking tangible. As snow keeps falling outside, both characters and readers are confronted with their own mortality.