The Water Warden is Rannveig Fern Leite Molven’s first collection of short stories. In this collection the big turning points in life and distinctive meetings between humans are explored, with an elegant language management and existential seriousness. Some moments change everything. For example, for Jenny who’s previously lost a child. She’s now pregnant again, but unable to feel joy about what’s coming. Jenny is visiting her friend Ida and is surprised by her lack of empathy and understanding for the situation. Not least is Jenny caught off guard by Leo, a young boy’s who verbally attacks the child she’s carrying.

Mari isn’t quite a child, but still not a grown up. Every summer she meets Siren, who spends his summers where Mari and her parents live. This time everything is about to change. Siren, who is a few years older, invites her on a camping trip, where things don’t go quite like Mari had imagined. She doesn’t have the experience to understand that what happens is wrong, even though she can feel it in her bones that it’s uncomfortable, that she doesn’t want to. Life will never be the same again.

Ruth and Maria are a young couple in Bergen. Maria invites Ruth home to visit her parents. They live in a wealthier area than where she comes from; everything is different here. Cleaner. Nicer. But this is just a façade, because Ruth’s parents are not living very happy lives. Her father is violent. Her mother is worn down and hurt, both mentally and physically. What is Maria actually thinking? And how does it affect Ruth being involved in her plan? What does it mean to save someone, and what price should you pay for that?