Literature and Fiction · Hardback

The Narcisisst

Norwegian title: Narsissisten

Erling Simon

Jim’s grandma is dying, and he has to clean up the empty house. This process puts him in touch with a childhood that wasn’t necessarily happy, and which made him, despite his talent, quit playing music, the thing he loved the most, when he was 15 years old. His childhood is well documented by his father, an internationally recognised photo artist. His father’s pictures of Jim as a child shows Jim and his older brother, Aksel, in scenes characterised by jealousy and fighting over their father’s favour. Jim’s artistic gifts made him and his father very close, but the weeks alone in his grandma’s house leads Jim to find signs of how his father’s actions poisoned his relationship with his older brother.

The Narcissist is a novel about fathers and sons. About the mechanisms which hold them together, about a father’s self-assertion, and about love and trust that grow weaker. Intimate and controlled language shows up close how our view of reality sometimes can be shaken up; an existential experience which many can recognize. This is a novel about those who have stopped trusting their loved ones, or who no longer has their loved ones’ trust.