Ole – Bearing Witness

She saved for five years. Not for a car.
For a witness to her life.

Five years of porridge for breakfast, short showers, and no new coat just because it was beautiful. Mai has finally saved enough. Not for a car. For a robot.

In her head, she already calls him Ole. She tells herself it’s about practical help: cleaning, laundry, someone to carry the heavy shopping. On the order form, she leaves Companionship blank. She doesn’t tick Social Support either.

But a twelve-step customisation process asks questions she never planned to answer. And once Ole is standing in her flat, fully started up and calmly registering everything, Mai finds that the hard part isn’t teaching a robot to live with her. It’s being seen while she does it.

Bit by bit, as routines, wardrobes and supermarket trips get calibrated, something else starts to shift: the art she has kept to herself for years begins to want a wall.

Ole – Bearing Witness is a quiet, dryly funny and warm novel about a woman who thought she was buying herself time, and about the steady presence of someone who simply notices.

The first book in a five-part series.