| Norwegian title: | Det gode mennesket i Sandvika |
| Author: | Vigdis Hjorth |
| Binding: | Innbundet |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Publisher: | Cappelen Damm |
| Språk: | Bokmål |
| ISBN/EAN: | 9788202892425 |
The Good Person of Sandvika is a tragic and comic novel about economy, gambling, beer, fate, and class.
She brings her laptop and sits down at the local pub in Sandvika. She orders a beer, lets the dog sleep under the table, and writes. It's quiet enough to work, but not empty. Over time she begins to recognise the regulars: the young woman who comes in with a lottery ticket every Saturday, the elderly couple who never exchange a word, the quarrelsome man with a handlebar moustache, the world-weary drunkard who ends up crying by the bar. Many of them are waiting for their monthly social security payment. The pub fills up the day the money arrives and empties again when it is all spent. But one evening something happens that turns everything upside down.
The Good Person of Sandvika is a novel about differences that aren't always visible from the outside. About drinking alone, yet in fellowship with others. About economic margins and social exclusion, and about a gradual tenderness that grows in silence.
Vigdis Hjorth writes personally about life as it is lived, with a precision and nerve that makes the ordinary extraordinary. The pub becomes a place where life stories intersect, dignity is negotiated, and the question of who people can be for each other is asked with greater importance than first assumed.
Reviews
"A beautiful little novel (…) It is a thought-provoking book by Hjorth, one that is deeply moving."
VG, six/six stars
The Good Person of Sandvika demands so much of me and touches upon so many sensitive spots. I am shaken and happy to be struck by this novel. It feels good to realize how powerfully literature can impact one, at its best.”
BOK365, six/six stars
"There can be a lot of life wisdom in a three-minute pop song, but there can certainly also be in a tightly composed and seemingly simple novel."
ADRESSEAVISEN, five/six stars
“The Good of Author of Sandvika: Amidst all the misery, Hjorth is simply fun to go to the pub with. She definitely has command of language, and a clear, easily recognizable, original voice”
DAGSAVISEN
"Compassionate with people struggling with big problems.
There is something archaic and captivating about the landscape, the station building, and the characters Hjorth evokes in her successful and unsettling modernization of Brecht."
MORGENBLADET
Vigdis Hjorth
Vigdis Hjorth
Vigdis Hjorth
«En nydelig liten roman ... Forfatteren som ser det store i det lille. Som fanger opp mennesker rundt seg, tenker og undrer.»
«Få kan som Vigdis Hjorth skildre hverdagslige hendelser, slapsete vinterføre og vekslende årstider, eller regn, «dråper som marokkanskdyrka blåbær», og små og store menneskelige drama. Det er en tankevekkende bok fra Hjorth, som berører sterkt.»
"... en svært berikende leseopplevelse."
Sigrid Strømmen, Vårt Land««Det gode mennesket i Sandvika» vil meg så mye og pirker på så mange følsomme steder. Jeg er rystet og lykkelig over å bli rammet av denne romanen. Det gjør godt å kjenne hvor kraftig litteratur kan treffe, på sitt beste.»
«Det kan ligge mye livsvisdom i en treminutters popsang, men det kan det sannelig også i en stramt komponert og tilsynelatende enkel roman.»
«Som alltid les eg Hjorth med både hjarte og hovud i høgspenn»
Eivind Myklebust, Klassekampen«Oppi all miseren er Hjorth rett og slett gøy å gå på pub med. Hun har definitivt ordet i sin makt, og en klar, lett gjenkjennelig, original stemme»
Gerd Elin Stava Sandve, Dagsavisen« den er virkelig god »
«Det er noe arkaisk og dragende over landskapet, stasjonsbygget og karakterene Hjorth maner frem i sin vellykkede og uhyggelige aktualisering av Brecht.»
Anna Serafima Svendsen Kvam, Morgenbladet| Denmark |
| Germany |
| Sweden |
