What’s become of the epistolary novel now that a narrator can get in touch with whomever they’d like in an instant? The form once allowed for passionate expressions that might’ve been stifled in public, in a room. Now, a contemporary character is more likely to feel overburdened by remote language, and more likely to long for what’s immediate and sensate.

A work of art ought not to be treated like a legal battle, a painstaking recounting of facts, or a cut-and-dried drama featuring villains and heroines. This point is in keeping with the memoir’s title, which refers to the right to file for a divorce without assigning blame or naming a cause. Now, couples in most countries can choose to separate without demonstrating that harm has been done—a nearly impossible task in domestic spaces.