by Irmgard Keun
Gilgi knows where she's going in life: she's ambitious, focused and determined, even when her boss tries it on with her, even when her parents reveal a terrible secret on her twenty-first birthday. Then she meets the charming but feckless Martin and, for the first time, Gilgi finds herself bewilderingly and dangerously derailed.
Irmgard Keun's electrifying debut was an instant sensation in Weimar Germany, with its frank, fearless exploration of sex, work and love.
Translated by Geoff Wilkes
'How contemporary the novel feels, with its portrait of a woman fighting to maintain control over her life and her body' The New York Times
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