Opt Out

'Propulsive and calmly devastating ... Setterwall is in full command' MARINA KEMP, author of The Unwilding '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

© 2025 Bloomsbury Circus (Audiobook): 9781526675927

Translators: Deborah Bragan-Turner

Release date

Audiobook: August 14, 2025