Literature and Fiction · Paperback

Small Keys, Big Rooms

Norwegian title: Små nøkler store rom

A Norwegian classic from a pioneering feminist voice
Unpretentious, accessible prose with enduring relevance
A mirror of women’s changing roles in society
Vik writes in a feminist tradition that includes authors like Cora Sandel, Nini Roll Anker and Torborg Nedreaas, and more recently Vigdis Hjorth and Hanne Ørstavik

Elsi Lund is four years old when the war breaks out in Norway. She grows up in Oslo in a tenement building that is poor and overcrowded, yet rich in stories. With an unparalleled ability to capture scents, moods and small moments, Bjørg Vik portrays an environment and an era unlike any other writer. Here there is both toil and struggle, but also dreams, secrets and longings that shape people's lives.

Small Keys, Big Rooms is the first volume in the critically acclaimed Elsi Lund trilogy, which together offers a uniquely powerful portrait of post-war Oslo as seen through the eyes of a young girl.

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