Literature and Fiction · Hardback

This is My Sea

Norwegian title: Det er mitt hav

Caroline Kaspara Palonen

Beatrice lives in a cramped room in a big town. She is trying to write an assignment about a painting, and most of her life comes to a stop when she cannot manage to describe what she is really seeing. She begins to wonder whether it would have been better to have been part of an ambulance crew. Why is she sitting in a flat when she could have been out there saving lives? She meets a fairly ordinary chap called Viggo. When her parents come to visit, they tell her that she must stop saying ”I don't know,” because that's not the way to get a job.

After completing her studies, Beatrice moves back to North Norway. Viggo comes with her to her little home town, a town facing the sea. Beatrice thinks that she too must face towards the sea. She gets a daughter, a job, a house, a dog. She has a deceased father, great grief, a sick mother and difficulties accepting all the normality of life around her.

A novel about the importance of a camera and a pair of tusks in a young person's search for identity; about grief and anger; about distance and closeness; about cellphone crushing; about trying to reconcile oneself with the life one has chosen, with the help of a florist, a stranger, a pedometer, a regular schedule and a plan to bake a cake.