Åsgårdstrand is a small town by the Oslofjord, but also a condition, an open wound in the life of the protagonist. In the late winter of 1989, his mother dies suddenly. The family falls apart. The protagonist is standing at the threshold of adulthood and feels abandoned and unprepared. Of all the thoughts going through his head, there is one that persists: disappear, from his family and from Åsgårdstrand, from everything.

The protagonist is a middle-aged man when he writes about the upheaval and loss he experienced as a teenager. We meet him going about his everyday life as a family man and author. The memories are fragmented, fragile and uncertain.

Åsgårdstrand is the fifth novel in a series that started with The Lofoten Wall (2017). The books can be read as standalone stories but have a consistent form, an inner coherence and a common thread.