Sophia Weber is an anxious 22-year-old, utterly dependent on her mother’s care. Gertrude Weber, Sophia’s mother, spends her time whipping her matriarchal household into shape while obsessing over her daughter’s well-being. But Gertrude uses her maternal power only to manipulate her daughter into living a life of fear and dependency. The novel takes listeners on a tormenting ride through Sophia’s memories while she struggles in the present day with a mother who has not yet allowed her child to grow up.

While still living at home, Sophia commutes by bus to her job, where pushing paper is her forte. Pushing paper around for a living allows Sophia to hide behind mountains of busywork, rather than repairing her draining home life. But when she meets a coworker Damian Voigt, who fills her head with dreams of running away from home and leaving her present demons behind, the story takes a dramatic turn. Sophia, thereby, attempts to defy her dependency by falling for Damian.

Filled with urgency, emotional turmoil, and psychological depth, The Paper Pusher gives its listeners an inside look at a world of hope against a backdrop of constant struggle. It shows Sophia’s fight to overcome codependency caused by her parent’s systematic manipulation and her lover’s unexpected choice.

Will Damian merely step in as a placeholder for Sophia’s mother? Is their relationship solving the problem, or is this a new form of codependency?