A Ladder to the Sky

At the request of her student Maja Drazkowski, Edith arranges for Maurice to speak to her creative writing class. During the session, Garrett Colby challenges Maurice about the ethics of using Erich Ackermann’s life story. Maurice becomes defensive, insisting his work is fiction.

Later, at a student bar, a student named Nicholas Bray tells Edith her writing is superior to Maurice’s. That evening, Edith and Maurice attend the university’s literary festival. After a reading by author Leona Alwin, Edith and Maurice have a spontaneous sexual encounter. At the reception, Maurice is embarrassed when Leona recognizes Edith but does not remember him.

Back at their flat, Maurice instigates rough, aggressive sex. Edith grows suspicious that he has been using her computer, and her anxiety increases when she nearly falls on a broken handrail that she has repeatedly asked him to repair.

During the Christmas holidays, Edith and Maurice visit Edith’s mother, Amoya. Also present are Edith’s sister, Rebecca, her sons, and her new partner, Arjan. Maurice acts condescendingly toward Arjan, who impresses Edith by discussing her novel. When Arjan refers to Maurice as someone who “used to be a writer” (174), Maurice becomes irritable.

The tension is interrupted by Rebecca’s estranged husband, Robert Gelwood, who has come to see his sons.