Since her very powerful debut novel Ingen skal høre hvor stille det er in 2010, Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg has been one of our most productive and critically acclaimed authors. She is often compared with Merethe Lindstrøm.

The central event which drives the plot in her new novel Dette er helt nødvendig is a divorce.

Daniel, a photographer, takes his two young daughters on a boat trip while he reflects on what really happened between him and his wife, Sonja. What drove her to end their marriage and their life together?

During the trip he decides to break the agreement he has made with his ex-wife, to only have the daughters at sea with him for one single day. He takes the children further out to sea to go camping on a remote island, even though he knows there is a storm coming, putting their lives in grave danger. To his astonishment, Daniel realizes that a part of him welcomes this. But how far is he willing to go, gambling with his children's lives in order to get his revenge?

In Dette er helt nødvendig, Kroneberg continues her intensive investigation of families.