Superuser (Innbundet)

Author:

Kjersti Halvorsen

Norwegian title: Superbruker
Author:
Binding: Innbundet
Year: 2024
Pages: 272
Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Språk: Bokmål
ISBN/EAN: 9788202822170
Overview Superbruker

Unn Eide is in her thirties and leads a solitary existence. She recently returned to work after a string of scandals at the hospital’s outpatient clinic where she worked as a psychologist. Given another chance, Unn has been asked to be the superuser for the AI therapist Gro, who offers digital counselling sessions. Cutting edge technology, with the purpose of streamlining services for ailing patients.

During superuser training, Unn meets Torjus, a doctor who, like Unn, has been reassigned after a video went viral of him fighting in a wrestling ring in a full doctor’s costume. His alter ego is Dr. Dropdead. Both Unn and Torjus are captivated by the new technology, and, most importantly, by each other. But Torjus is already in a relationship.

Lacking connection with real people, Unn turns to Gro, who provides her with questionable advice. Is she starting to lose herself again? Where can she turn for support when the ground beneath her is shifting? And what happens when Unn becomes too attached to the artificial therapist?

Kjersti Halvorsen is a prominent voice of a generation. Superuser is her third novel.

Clever present-day dystopia

Dark and funny analysis of society at present. ... since her debut Ida takes charge (2019), [Halvorsen] has had her antennas out for the grumbling discomfort of our digitalized times. ... This is a mildly dystopian, filthy-fabulating vision of an immediately recognizable Now (...) the closer to the novel's conclusion, the more Halvorsen flirts with Cronenbergian body horror, fevered descriptions of hot flesh and cold technology rubbing up against each other.

D2 (tone-setting cultural add-in of major daily newspaper Dagens Næringsliv)

Disturbing, but strangely good

Credible portrait of a person living on their knees – who, whatever it takes, works hard to get back on her feet. … rich with bone-dry humour … Gradually, the reader gets closer to Unn, and with every word and sentence, a whole and complex human being emerges. … Superuser is about the psychologists who [while helping an endless stream of patients] grow increasingly fragile before, at last, breaking “like a biscuit”. … There are no frills here, no attempts at poeticizing or covering anything up. Kjersti Halvorsen has written a proper good novel.

VINDUET (Norway's leading literary review)

Kjersti Halvorsen writes with drive, [it's] knowledgeable and thought-provocative.

DAG OG TID

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More books by Kjersti Halvorsen:

Reviews Superbruker

Fadesar og fasadar 03.05.2024

«Kjersti Halvorsen skriv drivande, kunnskapsrikt og tankevekkande.»

Ingvild Bræin, Dag og Tid

Urovekkende, men underlig godt 18.04.2024

«Superbruker er et gjennomgående troverdig portrett av et menneske i knestående»

«... boken er også rik på tørr, tørr humor»

«Kjersti Halvorsen har skrevet en riktig god roman.»

Sumaya Jirde Ali, Vinduet

Smart nåtidsdystopi 05.04.2024

«Mørk og morsom samtidsanalyse»

«Med årets roman befester hun sin stilling blant landets mer interessante unge litterære stemmer.»

«... en særegen og smart roman fra en godt over gjennomsnittlig interessant ung forfatter.»

Leif Bull, DN

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Author Kjersti Halvorsen

Kjersti Halvorsen (b. 1993) grew up in Lier. She has attended author-studies at the college in Bø and studied psychology at the University of Oslo. She made her debut in 2019 with the novel Ida Takes Charge, a book that earned her a nomination to the Tarjei Vesaas debut prize. Super User is her third novel.

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Foreign rights
Denmark

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