Following a move to the Netherlands, a young woman dissects the developments of her new life. In her newfound isolation, she develops an unusual friendship with Colette, a woman she neither likes nor can keep away from. As her feelings of dislocation grow, larger anxieties about her purpose - or lack of it - begin to encroach.

'Stark and brilliant; a must-read for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider' -Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater and Milk Teeth 'There's a gap where my sense of place should be. It's quite a useful one sometimes. It allows me to sit on the cusp of an opinion.' When a young woman moves to the Netherlands, she finds herself becoming increasingly disconnected to those around her. Over days spent alone, freelancing in her apartment, she picks through the details of her life with an obsessional devotion. But when she develops an uneasy friendship with Colette, a woman she neither likes nor can keep away from, anxieties about her purpose - or lack of it - begin to take over. In shining prose, award-winning Phoebe Walker's debut novel picks apart a young woman's paranoia and anxiety. Intimate, incisive and brilliantly observed, Temper explores loneliness and self-worth with head-nodding accuracy.