Sunniva travels from Norway to the United States to reunite with Michael and Kelly, two friends from her time spent in a yoga community during the 2010s. One decade later, much has changed. Both in society and in their three lives.

A road trip from San Francisco to Portland outlines the story of their shared friendship: a journey backwards in time, to the how and when of their first meeting, to what later happened between them, and the things they either confronted or left unsaid in the past. Their years spent at a yoga school, as students of the charismatic and boundless teacher Jasper, has left them all affected and changed. Yet each of them remembers the experience very differently.

Poses delves into questions surrounding the trauma and lasting effects of physical and psychological violations. It draws inspiration from recent revelations about well-known yoga gurus and the communities surrounding them, such as Bikram and Ashtanga. Importantly, the novel also explores the group dynamics that arise in spiritual communities with strong, charismatic leaders.

Sævareid is skilled at describing the external landscape and the inner dynamics of friendship. (...) Sævareid's sensitive treatment of unhealthy body control is masterful. The descriptions of pain and resistance in the body are palpable. (...) As a reader familiar with yoga postures and Sanskrit terms, I appreciate how concrete Sævareid is in these depictions. At the same time, she takes care of readers without the same background with her steady and sensual approach to language. Describing bodily movements and postures in writing is indeed not an easy task.

VÅRT LAND