Listen to a sample
Opt Out
- Author
- Carolina Setterwall
- Narrator
- Richard Attlee, Sofia Engstrand
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 14 August 2025
- Run Time
- 10 hours 8 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
'Quietly affecting' DAILY MAIL
Everything will be fine. That is what Mary and John promise when they tell their two children that they are getting a divorce. But while the end of their marriage offers them both freedom from their dissatisfaction, it brings to the fore the pain and resentments that have always percolated through their relationship and throws into stark relief their shortcomings as partners and as parents.
While John finds a second chance at love – still retaining the support of their children – Mary is forced to contend with the fact that, having always yearned for the approval of others, she is thoroughly unprepared for the waves of change that are coming to reshape her life.
Told from the alternating perspectives of Mary and John as they navigate life in the wake of their separation, Opt Out is an astute examination of the constrictive power of gender roles, and a reckoning with our impossibly idealised conceptions of motherhood. Smart and intimate, it explores the difficulties of breaking away from the constraints of one life in pursuit of another.
Praise for Carolina Setterwall and Let’s Hope for the Best
'I've read it twice now ... Utterly compulsive' Marian Keyes
'I think the world should read it' Lisa Taddeo
'Brutally candid … The most compelling book I've read in years' The Times
'It's impossible not to draw comparisons with Karl Ove Knausgaard' Evening Standard
'Every spare, controlled sentence has the ring of truth … Gripping' Daily Mail
Critics Review
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As we alternate between the couple’s perspectives the cumulative effect of their journeys becomes quietly affecting
Daily Mail
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I was riveted by this propulsive, calmly devastating portrayal of a couple’s separation and the lives that continue beyond it. Setterwall’s prose is never didactic, and yet she is in full command of her reader’s ambivalence towards both her protagonists and the small but shattering betrayals they endure: by each other, by their bodies and by themselves
MARINA KEMP, author of The Unwilding
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Carolina Setterwall doesn’t shy away from darkness. Opt Out is a daring book, brave not least because it has the courage to point out the consequences of a divorce for the woman
Expressen
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In Opt Out, the gaze is as relentlessly direct, heart-rending, and searching as in the debut . . . As an observant guide through the human psyche and relationships, Setterwall is astonishing
Västerbottenskuriren
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Stylistically pure prose . . . Setterwall doesn’t move a centimetre away from the dry and factual, and leaves it up to the reader to fill in the emotions . . . Incredibly skillfully written
Barometern
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Carolina Setterwall
- Narrator
- Richard Attlee, Sofia Engstrand
- Duration
- 10 hours 8 minutes
- Release Date
- 14 August 2025
- ISBN
- 9781526675927
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general
Synopsis
'Propulsive and calmly devastating ... Setterwall is in full command' MARINA KEMP, author of The Unwilding'Quietly affecting' DAILY MAILEverything will be fine. That is what Mary and John promise when they tell their two children that they are getting a divorce. But while the end of their marriage offers them both freedom from their dissatisfaction, it brings to the fore the pain and resentments that have always percolated through their relationship and throws into stark relief their shortcomings as partners and as parents.While John finds a second chance at love – still retaining the support of their children – Mary is forced to contend with the fact that, having always yearned for the approval of others, she is thoroughly unprepared for the waves of change that are coming to reshape her life.Told from the alternating perspectives of Mary and John as they navigate life in the wake of their separation, Opt Out is an astute examination of the constrictive power of gender roles, and a reckoning with our impossibly idealised conceptions of motherhood. Smart and intimate, it explores the difficulties of breaking away from the constraints of one life in pursuit of another.Praise for Carolina Setterwall and Let’s Hope for the Best'I've read it twice now ... Utterly compulsive' Marian Keyes'I think the world should read it' Lisa Taddeo'Brutally candid … The most compelling book I've read in years' The Times'It's impossible not to draw comparisons with Karl Ove Knausgaard' Evening Standard'Every spare, controlled sentence has the ring of truth … Gripping' Daily Mail
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