Is Mother Dead

"How I love my Mum in the bathroom with the razor blade, the desperate Mum of my past." This novel is a harrowing and relentless and unforgiving read, and is not on any level a pleasant one, and in these ways it fulfills its purpose perfectly. It remains laser-focused on developing its singular theme......more

Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023 This psychologically acute and intricate text puts readers in the head of a sixty-ish woman who struggles to come to terms with her relationship to her estranged mother: Johanna, our narrator and protagonist, is a successful painter who disappointed......more

This is Vigdis Hjorth's latest work to make its way into English, translated again by the excellent Charlotte Barslund. The story follows a woman in late middle age, long estranged from her birth family, returning to Norway after a long absence. Her estranged family is very much on her mind. We see......more

È il racconto di una frattura tra madre e figlia, che il tempo non riesce a sanare. Passano trent’anni senza che si parlino. Poche righe formali, prima, poi il silenzio. Tornata in Norvegia, Johanna pensa di poter ricucire il rapporto e, soprattutto vuole capire. Vuole che la madre ammetta i propri er......more