Thistle

Nadia de Vries, translation Sarah Timmer Harvey

Thistle is a young woman whose father, a pilot, dies suddenly in a plane crash when she is thirteen years old. The airline’s compensation payout is substantial but doesn’t assuage the family’s grief. By the time she is seventeen, Thistle has lost most of her teenage years trying to make sense of her father’s premature death. In the meantime, her body is developing, and she finds herself sexualized and objectified by men against her will. Teenaged Thistle is increasingly aware of her allure but unsure of how to use that to her advantage. When her mother gifts her a camera, Thistle decides to turn the lens on herself, capturing her nude body in various poses just before she turns eighteen.