The second is set in early 21st Century USA, where a beekeeper is struggling against the changes to farming that modern technology is ushering in. The first is set in 19th Century England, and follows a biologist who has dedicated himself to inventing a revolutionary new kind of beehive. The History of Bees follows three distinct but intertwined narratives. In terms of theme and scope, Maja Lunde’s novel certainly reaches those heights.Īt its heart, this is a novel about relationships: those between parents and their children, and that between human society and the natural world we manipulate and endanger. The History of Bees has been compared to the works of Kazuo Ishiguro and Emily St John Mandel, and for good reason. One of the best modern Norwegian novels, and an essential read. This is a book about secrets and secrecy, about the past haunting the present. Our protagonist, a former TV presenter named Allis, has left her job and her partner behind to work as housekeeper for a middle-aged man who barely speaks and spends his days doing unknown things behind a closed door.Īllis completes her daily tasks in relative isolation: cooking, cleaning, shopping, gardening, while we wait for the man’s wife to return from her travels. The Bird Tribunal is a wonderful example of this a novel about a pair of strangers living together on a remote fjord. Norwegian novels have a penchant for the noir, the bleak, and the foreboding. If there is one nation known for its thrillers and literature that focuses on the theme of isolation, it’s Norway.
Rosie Hedger has become a big name in the world of Norwegian literary translation (you can see her name all over this article), and we are forever grateful to her for bringing The Bird Tribunal into English.
With nothing but these ingredients, Gohril Gabrielsen weaves a complex tale soaked in paranoia and rich in fantasy and imagination.Īnkomst is a story of steadily climbing dread which takes place solely in the mind of a woman alone with her thoughts. It is remarkable what can be created with a minimal set of tools: a dark, quiet place a single character a handful of memories and plenty of time. We follow a 36-year-old scientist who has left her husband for another man and, in the midst of this turbulent time in her life, has taken herself far away to a remote northern region of Norway to work.īut when work is all quiet observation in a silent place, thoughts become obsessions and worries become anxieties and fears turn to paranoia. In Ankomst, one of the most powerful modern Norwegian novels, Gohril Gabrielsen invites us into the intimate world – half isolated cabin, half broken headspace – of a nameless narrator.
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