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The Looking-Glass Sisters

Gøhril Gabrielsen,

John Irons (Translator)

3.45 · Rating details · 142 ratings · 34 reviews

Far out on the plains of northern Norway stands a house. It belongs to two middle-aged sisters. They seldom venture out and nobody visits. The younger needs nursing and the older never dared to leave. Until one day a man arrives. The women realise quickly that only one can stay. 'On the surface this book presents the gripping drama of the conflict between two sisters. Howe ...more

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Paperback, 174 pages

Published September 25th 2015 by Peirene Press (first published 2008)

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Oct 01, 2015 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: suspense, unreliable-narrator, lit-in-translation, scandinavian, requested-from-publisher, reviewed-for-blog

Since discovering Peirene Press, a publisher of novellas in English translation, I’ve been keen to try more of their little gems. This is the second of four novels from Gabrielsen, a Norwegian author who lives in the far north of the country in a region called Finnmark. It’s an isolated place she uses to good effect in this novel about two sisters whose lives change – and not for the better – when one of them gets married.

I reign as queen in my room, in spite of the dust and the dirt. I have the

I reign as queen in my room, in spite of the dust and the dirt. I have the silence, my pen and books, and, not least, I own the hours when Ragna is away.

Our unnamed narrator is paralyzed from the waist down and keeps to her bed in a home she shares with her older sister, Ragna. Their parents had her late in life and died early, so Ragna has looked after her since they were 19 and 24. They are now in middle age, so for years have rubbed along reasonably well, although there have been small acts of cruelty on either side – for instance, as a child the narrator planted chewing gum in Ragna’s bed so she’d have her luxurious hair cut off, and Ragna stays in the bathroom so long one morning that the narrator, making her tortuous way downstairs on crutches, has an accident in the hallway.

A short prologue tells us things have gotten worse: Ragna and her husband of less than one year, Johan, now keep the sister locked up in the attic. In the novella’s core section the narrator returns to the previous year, when Ragna and Johan were courting, to track the decline of this strange “little family with pus and pain in our cuts and scratches.” It all starts with her finding a letter Ragna wrote to a nursing home about committing her sister – and replacing it with a sheet of blank paper.

Our discontented narrator has a compulsion to remind everyone of her inconvenient existence: “I’m here. And I’m bloody hungry!” Whenever Ragna and Johan have friends visit, she is sure to make a scene. Her other acts of resistance are largely passive, though: writing snarky messages in the blank pages of encyclopedia volumes, listening on disapprovingly as Ragna and Johan have sex on the other side of the wall, and cursing Johan by burning his hair. Ragna follows suit by pettishly withholding library books and hot meals.

What we have here is essentially a psychological thriller with a claustrophobic domestic setting. Because we see everything from the narrator’s perspective, we share her sense of outrage at how Johan has upset her comfortable life and “sabotaged our sisterly pact.” At the same time, Gabrielsen implants tiny, clever clues that this is an unreliable narrator:

Can it be that I, the helpless one, have bred the anger in her by making myself more pathetic than I am? And can it be that I, in my struggle to gain the inviolable position of victim, have forged and fashioned Ragna the violator?

I can once more carry on my most precious occupation: lie on the pillows and twist the world exactly as I like.

Ultimately we have to wonder whether the person who has been telling us this whole story might be mentally compromised. How much of her mistreatment and present condition is she imagining? The way Gabrielsen counterbalances inherent trust in a narrator with skepticism as the story proceeds is remarkable. “I am reduced to an observing eye,” the protagonist tells us – and as readers we both see out of that eye and seek an objective outside view. It’s a gently thrilling book I’d recommend to you in the run-up to Halloween.

Note: Peirene issues books in trios: this is part of the “Chance Encounter series: Meeting the Other,” along with Aki Ollikainen’s White Hunger and Raymond Jean’s Reader for Hire.

With thanks to Peirene Press for the free copy.

(Originally published with images at my blog, Bookish Beck.) ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Shawn Mooney (Shawn The Book Maniac) marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: did-not-finish-2017, did-not-finish-2020

2020 Bail Review: I tried this again at the end of 2020, after bailing on page 76 three years ago. I got to page 60 this time and reached the same conclusion: a book about awful people doing awful things to each other simply does not hold my interest.

2017 Bail Review: Yeah, no...this tale of two of the most perfectly detestable women in literature would likely have ended up being the last book I read in 2017. I will not completely taint the year that way. I like dark stories, and I don’t mind un ...more

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Nov 07, 2015 Antonomasia rated it liked it

Shelves: nordic, novella, norway, women-in-translation, 2015, decade-2000s, el

Another essay-sized review. I've been slogging at this thing on and off for a couple of months, which was ridiculous and wearing; time to draw a line under it and post.

If this book had been set a century earlier, I might have rated it more highly. As it is, I'm going to do something that I think there is way too much of on Goodreads already (albeit not for this particular book): concentrate on the issue of minority representation. It is useful to look from the other side sometimes, to keep thing ...more

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Sep 09, 2015 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: lit-in-translation, arcs-from-publishers

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

This is an emotionally intense and sinister book that will leave you thinking about relationships with close family members long after you finish the last page. The focus of the book is on the codependence of two sisters who are each other’s only remaining relatives after their parents die. When the book opens they are middle-aged and have been living together in isolation on the outskirts of rural Norway for almost 30 years.

The first sister, the I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

This is an emotionally intense and sinister book that will leave you thinking about relationships with close family members long after you finish the last page. The focus of the book is on the codependence of two sisters who are each other’s only remaining relatives after their parents die. When the book opens they are middle-aged and have been living together in isolation on the outskirts of rural Norway for almost 30 years.

The first sister, the one who is the unnamed narrator of the story, has been physically handicapped since she was a little girl. She contracted a high fever which caused her to be in the hospital for several weeks and the illness left her paralyzed from the waist down. She must rely on her parents for all of her needs and when her parents die the only other person she has left in her life is her older sister, Ragna. The sisters live in a remote house that no one ever visits and the only way to reach the local village for supplies is by snow sled.

But one day the routine of the sisters’ lives changes when a man named Johan moves into the area and starts to court Ragna. We get the sense that Ragna has been resentfully taking care of her sister for years and has never really developed any life of her own because of the constant needs of her invalid sister. Ragna seems bitter and at times she is emotionally and physically cruel to her disabled sister. There is one scene in the book that is particularly painful to read; the handicapped sister has to use the bathroom and drags herself out of bed with her crutches and just before she reaches the bathroom, Ragna runs in and locks the door. Ragna refuses to come out of the bathroom and the crippled and helpless sister is forced to relieve herself in her pants. Her dignity is further eroded when she then must be cleaned up and carried back to bed by Ragna.

When Johan comes along and decides to marry Ragna, it seems that Ragna could not be happier now that she has the opportunity to rid herself of the burden of her sister. At times I felt sorry for both sisters. On the one hand, the handicapped sister cannot help her situation and she has no choice but to be constantly asking her sister for everything she needs. On the other hand, Ragna must constantly be at her sister’s beck and call and Ragna feels that her sister is never grateful for what Ragna does for her. We also get the feeling throughout the narrative that the disabled sister has a very narrow view of the world and doesn’t understand what is going on outside her room or how her constant demands affect her sister. At times she appears paranoid and melodramatic.

This novella brings up some interesting thoughts about family members and our obligations to them. If we are the only ones left to take care of a loved one are we obligated to do so to the detriment of our own lives? But if we can’t rely on our family, then who else is there to depend on in times of need? In the end, Ragna and Johan make a selfish decision in favor of making peace and quiet for themselves.

The novellas published by Peirene are meant to be read quickly, in a matter of a few hours. But I found this book so dark and intense that I could only read it a few pages at a time over the course of several days. The final book in the Chance Encounter series is a stunner that is the perfect way to finish out this set of novellas.

For more of my reviews visit: www.thebookbindersdaughter.com ...more

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Sep 21, 2016 Kirsty rated it really liked it

The first offering in English by acclaimed Norwegian author Gohril Gabrielsen has been published by the marvellous Peirene Press, making it their eighteenth title, and the final instalment in 2015’s Chance Encounter series. For those who do not know, Peirene focus upon translating European novella-length works, which would otherwise probably completely pass us by in the United Kingdom.

Translated by John Irons, The Looking-Glass Sisters – first published in Norway in 2008 – is a stunning and inte The first offering in English by acclaimed Norwegian author Gohril Gabrielsen has been published by the marvellous Peirene Press, making it their eighteenth title, and the final instalment in 2015’s Chance Encounter series. For those who do not know, Peirene focus upon translating European novella-length works, which would otherwise probably completely pass us by in the United Kingdom.

Translated by John Irons, The Looking-Glass Sisters – first published in Norway in 2008 – is a stunning and intense portrayal of the relationship between two sisters. Bergens Tidende, Norway’s fifth largest newspaper, believes that The Looking-Glass Sisters is ‘innovative and sensuous’, and Meike Ziervogel, the founder of Peirene, calls it ‘a story about loneliness – both geographical and psychological’. Here, Gabrielsen presents to us ‘a tragic love story about two sisters who cannot live with or without each other’.

Ragna is the elder sister, and has been tasked with caring for her partially paralysed, and thus totally dependent, sister since the deaths of their parents. Our narrator, who remains unnamed, says, ‘I’m dependent on her help and goodwill… But she ignores my cries, does not come, punishes me severely. And repeatedly… I have to realise that we’ve come to a watershed in our relationship as sisters. After our last agonising quarrel, it looks as if she’s forgotten me. I’ve been stowed away like an object among all the other objects up here – discarded and outside time’.

The prose style which Gabrielsen has made use of is gripping from the very start. The story opens in the following way: ‘My sister and her husband are outside, digging a deep hole next to the dwarf birch by my attic window… Soon I am dozing dreamlessly, just as hidden as the thing down there in the dark earth’. She uses the simple yet effective technique of going back in time in order to build the contextual information, and to give us further insights into the tumultuous and often cruel relationship between the sisters. The entire novella is deftly shaped, and Gabrielsen’s care and attention to detail mean that one is immediately submerged within the dark, stifling world of our narrator. The very notion of everyday life, and those tasks which we perhaps take for granted, are examined, as are the ways in and means with which our narrator brings herself to cope.

The reader is soon called upon to be a participant within the story, rather than merely an overseer: ‘Imagine an attic. Not just any attic, but one in a remote spot in a northern, godforsaken part of the world… You go up there only reluctantly, and preferably not alone – it’s got something to do with the creaking of the staircase… It’s not easy to make it to the room at the top. And it’s even more difficult to come down’. The power of the first person perspective grows: ‘You place your ear to the door. After a moment, you sense some sound of life, not breathing and movement, but a vibration of existence, an unrest that only life can produce… Deep inside, among the dancing white spots, you can make out the contours of a body resting on a bed. And this body, this only just perceptible unrest – it is me’.

The Looking-Glass Sisters contains such interesting and original aspects of personality, and builds a cast of characters who feel – often horribly – realistic, particularly in their cruelties. Ragna, for example, ‘is a person you instinctively talk loudly to, long and hard, so as to be heard through the thick layer of resistance’. Gabrielsen’s prose, and those elements which she depicts, are startling in places: ‘Her little heart shrivelled, like the animal hearts in the larder that her sister cooks with cream’.

Gabrielsen shrewdly demonstrates that one can be with somebody every day, and not really know them at all. In The Looking-Glass Sisters, she masterfully builds intensity, and weaves in elements of sensuality and control. She shows the hidden strength of our narrator, and sculpts the overriding feeling that people are not always as they may appear. The fact that the narrator herself is never given a name gives a whole new depth to proceedings; despite her lack of identification in this manner, she is still the most human depiction in the entire novella. The stark darkness within the plot, too, unfolds marvellously against the framework of the northern Norway setting. ...more

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Aug 05, 2015 Marina Sofia rated it really liked it

Very emotionally draining, dark and bitter book. Works beautifully with the harsh Finnmark climate. Passages of great lyrical intensity and wonderfully done unreliable narration. Made me glad I don't have a sister... ...more

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Aug 02, 2015 Claire rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, around-the-world-2016, around-the-world, translated, norwegian-literature

This is a tragedy about a woman who yearns for love but ends up in a painfully destructive conflict with her sister. It is also a story about loneliness – both geographical and psychological. Facing the prospect of a life without love, we fall back into isolating delusions at exactly the moment when we need to connect.<÷blockquote>

Mieke Ziervogel, Peirene Press

Two sisters have lived in the same house all their lives, their parents long gone and they can barely tolerate each other. They are boun

This is a tragedy about a woman who yearns for love but ends up in a painfully destructive conflict with her sister. It is also a story about loneliness – both geographical and psychological. Facing the prospect of a life without love, we fall back into isolating delusions at exactly the moment when we need to connect.<÷blockquote>

Mieke Ziervogel, Peirene Press

Two sisters have lived in the same house all their lives, their parents long gone and they can barely tolerate each other. They are bound together in one sense due to the practical disability of the younger sister, but also through the inherent sense of duty and responsibility of the first-born.

At times like these, in the dark, maybe with a candle lit, a sudden, intense feeling overcomes me that Ragna and I are one body, completely inseparable. We have gradually let go of parts of ourselves in favour of the other. Over the years, through conflicts and confrontations, we have shaped, kneaded and formed ourselves into a lopsided, distorted yet complete organism. Ragna has the body and I have the soul. She puts on the firewood, I do the thinking. She makes the tea, I read and write.

They manage with their hostile acceptance of each other until the new neighbour Johan begins to visit and competes for the attention of the able, caring, repressed Ragna, a potential disruptive threat to her invalid sister and to the way things in their household have been for a long time.

Days and weeks go by, I glide into a soothing rhythm of calm everydayness. It is an illusion, I know that, for beneath the dependable surface conspiracies smoulder, along with my sister’s hot-tempered desire for her own life.

Narrated from the perspective of the crippled sister in a stream of consciousness style, its intense, frustrating and laced with a sense of foreboding as the third character, Johan, arrives and either in her imagination or in reality – we are never quite sure – convinces the sister to make plans to change their circumstances.

Can it be that I, the sick one, have given rise to impatience in Ragna because of my exaggerated gestures and unreasonable demands? Can it be that I, the helpless one, have bred the anger in her by making myself more pathetic than I am? And can it be that I, in my struggle to gain the inviolable position of victim, have forged and fashioned Ragna the violator?

Claustrophobic, at times surreal, it fits perfectly with the Peirene Press Close Encounters theme, three books that explored different aspects of interpersonal relationships and the importance of the Other in our development as individuals and our understanding of ourselves.

...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Nancy Freund rated it really liked it

This was a weird book -- an unusual reading experience, that is. Repetitive and bleak with no likeable characters, but I was drawn to it and to whipping through it, page after page. It's quite a short novel, that reads with a singular focus like a short story normally would. In fact, it's very reminiscent of the 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman Perkins. In 'The Looking Glass Sisters' we have an even less reliable narrator, but the themes of abduction, isolation, female ...more

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Dec 01, 2015 Kate Gardner rated it really liked it

This is the story of two middle-aged sisters, Ragna and her younger sister, who narrates the book. The narrator suffered a childhood illness that has left her body severely weakened, so that she never leaves the house and is largely dependent on Ragna. They have lived together alone since the death of their parents and their relationship is bitter and twisted, but it works…until a man comes into Ragna’s life. Johan upsets the delicate balance, revealing alternative paths for the sisters.

You coul ...more

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Jul 02, 2020 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: translation, peirene-press, norwegian

Three unsavory characters make up this disturbing narrative of family dysfunction.

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Jun 29, 2016 Tripfiction rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-set-in-norway

Novella set in NORWAY

This review first appeared on our blog: http://www.tripfiction.com/novella-se...

If you put the Norwegian title of The Looking Glass Sisters (Svimlende muligheter, ingen frykt) into Google translate it comes out as Dizzying Possibilities, No Fear, which is sufficiently cryptic to explain why the publisher decided to change it in the English version. Literary translation is a tricky business and sometimes even the professionals have to admit defeat, recognizing that there are Novella set in NORWAY

This review first appeared on our blog: http://www.tripfiction.com/novella-se...

If you put the Norwegian title of The Looking Glass Sisters (Svimlende muligheter, ingen frykt) into Google translate it comes out as Dizzying Possibilities, No Fear, which is sufficiently cryptic to explain why the publisher decided to change it in the English version. Literary translation is a tricky business and sometimes even the professionals have to admit defeat, recognizing that there are occasions when rather than simply replacing one word with the equivalent in another language, they have to create their own expressions to reflect the truth of what the author is saying.

Having said that, it struck me that the Dizzying Possibilities of the original title has similarities to the title of a much more familiar English novel, Wuthering Heights, and the similarities do not end there. For this is a novel grounded in a specific location. Just as you can’t imagine Cathy living anywhere else than the lonely Yorkshire moors, it’s impossible to imagine the two middle-aged sisters of this novel living anywhere except in the expanses of northern Norway – one of the most isolated, sparsely populated areas of modern-day Europe. Even if most of the action, such as it is, takes place indoors the elemental world outside makes itself felt in the lives of the characters.

For most British and American readers there will be a lot in this book that is unfamiliar – even exotic. Most of us live in urban communities and unlike the two sisters of the book title haven’t experienced what it’s like to live apart from the rest of humanity, with only a fragile man-made shell between us and the forces of nature. But there’s lots that’s familiar too for the majority of us know at first-hand all about the complicated balance of dependence and independence, and the intense mix of emotions, which characterize relationships with our nearest and dearest. This novel combines the two elements – isolation and complicated familial relationships – and the result for the characters, as you would expect, is catastrophic. Indeed, The Looking Glass Sisters has the unsettling quality of one of the more disturbing fairy stories, Hansel and Gretel say, or Babes in the Woods.

Mind you, this novel is not without an element of dark humour. The way the sisters needle each other and the petty, intimate acts of attrition and retribution are behaviours that most siblings, and even some husbands and wives, will recognize. And speaking of husbands and wives, the catalyst that brings down the whole fragile familial edifice is, of course, a man. He offers one of the sisters another role in life, and their whole world shifts.

This is a very Nordic novel in its creation of a world where indifferent physical and emotional forces – whether it’s the cold or the stars, sex or dreams, love or hate – drive people to their fates. The book has been beautifully translated by John Irons but the strange alien quality remains.

If you’re on holiday and sick of hot, crowded, Mediterranean beaches and Dan Brown novels you may find this book calls to you, providing you with a blast of cold clear air and the sound of icy streams. If, on the other hand, you’re on your way to one of the Nordic countries to hike or ski in the wilderness, The Looking Glass Sisters will provide you with a way of interpreting what you will see and experience there. However, once you’ve read it I doubt you will want to linger too long near any deserted farmhouses. ...more

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Sep 12, 2015 Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) rated it liked it

Shelves: translation

Another hard and unrelenting read from Peirene Press, but I didn't love this one like I did White Hunger. The Looking Glass Sisters is powerful and bitter, with some extraordinary passages about the primal determination to survive. At the same time it's claustrophobic and overblown, and the sisters are so dehumanised that it's difficult to feel compassion for either of them. I was left feeling decidedly low. ...more

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Mar 22, 2018 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018

First of all, I have to give credit to John Irons who translated this from Norwegian. The beauty of Gabrielsen's voice gleams, unmarred. Even the wordplay is intact (or at least believable).

I'm still not entirely sure what actually happened in this novel, but the emotional truths resonated strongly with me. The atmosphere is pitch perfect, from the aching fragility, to the rich, black soil, to the cold, white horror that pervades it all.

Think Shirley Jackson meets Jeanette Winterson. ...more

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Aug 27, 2015 Gyl added it

North Finland, cold, bleak, remote - add in the relationship between 2 sisters one of whom is dependent on the other and the resentment that emerges when a man comes on the scene. A unique story, excellent written.

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Oct 09, 2015 Emily rated it really liked it

Some beautiful writing
Written in a tone that really suits the characters and landscapes & which is maintained throughout.
Will definitely be picking up more books in the Peirene Press Chance Encounters series in the future!

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Sep 13, 2017 Kadri added it

Shelves: fiction

disturbing and sinister but good

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Apr 06, 2018 Sally rated it liked it

Shelves: 21st-century-literature, norwegian-literature

"A life devoted to looking after a shabby, sickly sister out in the wilds"
By sally tarbox on 7 April 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Some of the Peirene novellas are compulsive reading, unputdownable...this isn't one of them, and I struggled through the 180 pages for well over a week.
Set in the remote North of Norway, it's narrated by a middle-aged disabled woman. Confined to the house, she is completely dependant on her elder sister, Ragna, for absolutely everything. Ragna is resentful, vengeful... b ...more

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Jun 17, 2017 Neil rated it liked it

A strange book set in the far north of Norway. Two middle-aged sisters have shared the house where they grew up for many years. The old sister had an illness at the age of 4 that means she can't walk, and her body appears to have steadily wasted away over the years. The older sister hasn't left the house for years, and the younger rarely leaves as well. A man enters their lives, and everything changes. Written from the perspective of the older sister, it's weird, dark, and at times hard to follo ...more

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Apr 05, 2021 Annette Morris rated it it was amazing

Intense, claustrophobic and grim. A gripping story starkly told, unrelenting and raw. Not a warm and cosy read. Do not read if you need cheering up. Do read if you can handle something powerful and harsh and as cold as the climate of northern Norway in which it's set. ...more

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Apr 14, 2021 Kirsten rated it really liked it

Shelves: litlit, solitude, bellow

I found this to be an interesting thought exercise about an internal conflict, but while skimming I see a lot of reviews for a very different book. As with the other dark and bleak novellas I've read recently, my mood determines whether I can enjoy it or hate it. I enjoyed this one. ...more

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Mar 08, 2018 Haloda rated it liked it

Very irritating..

Mental note: I need to be more present in the passing minutes that shape my life.

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Jul 26, 2019 Jessica Reads & Rambles rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandi-nordic, owned, in-translation, novels

3.5 stars

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Feb 02, 2020 Jamie Polivka rated it it was ok

I’ve loved all the Pierene Press books I’d read until this one. I’m not even sure the point of it all.

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Feb 27, 2020 Daisy rated it liked it

Shelves: aroundtheworld2020, sisters-twins, norway

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in the middle of nowhere.

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Dec 31, 2015 Rob Forteath rated it it was ok

This reads like a community theatre play for three characters in a one-room set. I imagine this set being a kitchen with an attic above it. Even though the book is not particularly long, there is plenty of time to explore the characters of the two sisters (Johan is barely a character at all).

It is quickly established that the two sisters have personalities that are completely and utterly different -- not opposites, but as though one complete person had been divided into two. One practical, one i ...more

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Sep 08, 2015 Anne Goodwin rated it liked it

Shelves: translations

Two middle-aged sisters live together on the edge of the moors in a remote part of northern Norway. They experience little of life beyond their house although the elder, Ragna, occasionally ventures into the village for provisions. The younger sister and (I think) unnamed chronicler of their lonely existence has been disabled since childhood, dragging her withered legs around on crutches, which function as both mobility aid and weapon. Their mutual resentment at their dependence on each other fo ...more

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Aug 12, 2015 Rebecka rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read_in_norwegian-bokmål, scandinavian-lit

Definitely not for everybody. I spent most of the book wondering which character to hate the most.

I seem to be on a roll when it comes to picking out depressing contemporary Norwegian literature. It also seems to be mainly written by women in their 20's/30's.

It's like they all took the same writing class. And like they all want to show what a horrid, inhuman place Norway is. Either way, it works, because the books are pretty good.

I may not be the only one who has noticed the trend. I saw an ar ...more

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Nov 04, 2015 Cheryl rated it really liked it

The story whisks us away to the icy plains of Norway and into the rather claustrophobic "huis clos" of two elderly sisters. The one who narrates the story is never named and she has a "madwoman in the attic" role - since a childhood illness took away the use of her legs, her big sister Ragna has had to become her constant housemaid and carer, leading to a real love-hate relationship between the two.

full review on my blog : http://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspot... ...more

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Dec 05, 2015 Gretel rated it did not like it

I skimmed a lot. So much misery, just for the sake of it and because Norway. There's enough content here to make a good, creepy little short story, but the author stretches the plot over 180ish pages and boy does it drag. We get it, the narrator is disabled and dependent on her sister and Ragna and Johan are horrible. Also, wouldn't the narrator be overjoyed at the prospect of going into a carehome if she thinks Ragna and Johan are so toxic? ...more

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Aug 20, 2015 Joan rated it liked it

Another good Peirene book.
Very bleak and despairing, it left me feeling depressed.

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About Gøhril Gabrielsen

Gøhril Gabrielsen

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Gøhril Jeanne Gabrielsen (born 14 January 1961) is a Norwegian writer. She grew up in Finnmark, but now lives in Oslo. Gabrielsen's debut novel Unevnelige hendelser (Unspeakable Events) came out in 2006 and was well received by critics, winning Aschehoug’s First Book Award. She has published several other novels, including Svimlende muligheter, ingen frykt (The Looking-Glass Sisters) and Skadedyr ...more