Služebná – Sinicka Alicja (2022)

Julia, the main character of the novel by Polish writer Alice Sinická, is a young woman with many dreams and goals who earns extra money by cleaning houses. Order is her personal passion. One day, she starts her job at the villa of the Borewski couple. The family consists of a somewhat peculiar, mysterious woman named Maria, her husband Mikuláš, an influential lawyer obsessed with the Middle Ages, and their adult son Kacper, a writer working on his new novel. Shortly after Julia begins, the Borewskis offer her a proposal for closer cooperation and shared living. She initially rejects it. However, after she unexpectedly faints while working in the villa, everything changes. The proposal becomes an offer that cannot be refused. Julia becomes part of a terrible game, where the fight for her dignity and freedom turns into a fight for her very life. Alice Sinická's chilling thriller, full of unexpected twists and tension, transports readers into the world of an abused woman desperately fighting to overturn her cruel fate. The plot of this dramatic story about manipulators and their victims is set against the real backdrop of her native Lower Silesia, which enhances the feeling of authenticity.