The second volume in Stig Sæterbakken's loosely connected "S Trilogy,"
Self-Control moves from the dark portrait of codependent marriage
featured in the acclaimed Siamese to a world of solitary loneliness and
repression. A middle-aged man, Andreas Feldt, feeling that he is unable
to communicate with his adult daughter over the course of a friendly
lunch, announces on an inexplicable whim that he is going to get a
divorce. Though his daughter is initially shocked, she quickly
assimilates this information and all returns to normal. Faced with this
virtual invisibility--for no matter what actions he takes, the world
seems to take no notice--Andreas is cut adrift from the certainties of
his life and forced to navigate through a society where it seems
virtually everyone is only one loss of self-control away from an
explosion of dissatisfaction and rage.