"The Undesired", by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
=======================================
London: Hoddder & Stoughton, paperback 2016.
   [translated from Icelandic]


  {Einar is a late-teenage boy at a youth care home; 
   Aldis is a yoing woman working at the home.

   "Aldis": there should be an acute accent on the i.}



p.37: ... instead of being afraid of Einar, she became intrigued. A
sneaking, malicious voice in her subconscious whispered that her interest
was simply due to his appearance, but Aldis immediately rejected the
idea, annoyed by the notion that she should be attracted to someone so
much younger.


p.148 [NP] She spat out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth. She wished
she could do the same to her brain, rinse out the churning thoughts that
had kept her awake. They had revolved around what upset her most -- her
relationship with her mother, and also the mystery surrounding Einar. As
she tossed and turned in the darkness her problems appeared ever more
insurmountable. ... She'd tried her best to come up with different ways
of sorting out her life, but to no avail. Each time, her fatalistic side
told her she had no control over her future.