Literature and Fiction · Paperback

Restraint

Norwegian title: Selvbeherskelse

Stig Sæterbakken

Andreas Feldt meets his oldest daughter, Marit, to take care of a financial matter. It has been years since they last saw each other. Seeing her again brings him out of balance, and in a confused moment he tells the daughter that he is divorcing her mother. This impulsive lie does not only destroy the conversation with the daughter, but also put doubt in his own mind about his own existence, shaped by routine and the people around him. A glaring suspicion awakens. It is like he has a blind spot in his memory. Is there something he has forgotten, something he does not want to, or is not capable of remembering? Restraint (Selvbeherskelse) can be read as a burlesque comedy and a dark tragedy.

"Stig Sæterbakkens Restraint is a intensely exploring novel. That people loose self control happens all the time. And you are supposed to have certain feelings. But what if restraint is the only think keeping you from loosing your mind? (...) With his fourth novel Sæterbakken envisions his abilities to describe some of the least graspable aspects of human existence. Stig Sæterbakken himself appears as an insightful, independent and artistically reflected novel writer, with a book that you can only congratulate him on writing."DAGBLADET