So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment.

The woman arrives on Achill Island at three in the morning. She drives through the village, observing the sights as she goes. She studies the landscape, surprised by the quiet, until she reaches Böll House. The house was formerly owned by the writer Henrich Böll, and she recently got a residency there to work on her writing. She lets herself into the house and tours the space. She boils water, lights a fire, and makes the couch into a bed. She reads some of her Chekhov short stories before turning out the light. She thinks about her work for the next day and falls asleep.

The woman wakes up from a dream, feeling satisfied. She unpacks her things from the car and looks forward to a day of reading and writing. Then the phone rings. She ignores it, but it rings again. When she finally answers, a German man is on the line. He says the residency director told him she’d be there and that he could stop by to see the house. Confused, the woman explains that she’s working and isn’t dressed.