Georg is German by origin, but travelled to Norway after the Second World War to marry his girlfriend Alma. He has made a success as an artist, but now he’s not getting much painting done any more as he’s losing his eye sight. Alma is dead and Georg is spending a lot of time alone. He waits for the household help who pops in once a week, he goes for short walks in his neighbourhood, and he anticipates a possible retrospect exhibition of his paintings. But it’s difficult to keep the memories at bay, and the motifs that come to Georg are always the same ones. He is haunted by memories of 1930s Germany and his childhood in war-torn Berlin. Despite his dwindling vision, he still tries to cling on to the reality he has lived through by transferring his traumatic memories onto the canvas.

Can we distance ourselves from our past? How do we deal with memories so intrusive that they spill over into everything else? Peter Serck’s new novel, Against Darkness, examines these questions perceptively and empathically.