Literary fiction

Kitchen

Lars Saabye Christensen

Kitchen is a warm, wistful and piercing novel about the Minde family in Vika in the 1970s – a district where Oslo's slums are still close to everyday life. When her son Kaj moves out, Gerd Minde is left in a home where silence reveals more than words ever did. Life goes on as before, but something has moved in between the walls: the question of who we are when the roles around us fall away. With precise humor, dark undertones and an eye for the small cracks in the ordinary, Saabye Christensen writes a story about loneliness, about who we are and everything that happens when the dice are rolled – and no one quite dares to see where it lands. Kitchen is Saabye of best mark«It fills me with joy to read Lars Saabye Christensen. [...] The author's new novel Kitchen contains one of the finest portraits of women I have read in a very long time.»VG, six/six stars «Yes, there are many good Norwegian authors. But when Saabye Christensen is at his best, as in parts of the series Echoes of the City (Byens spor) and as in the short story The Hare (Haren) and as in the hot-off-the-press novel Kitchen (Kjøkken), then he is, in my opinion, in a class of his own.»NETTAVISEN, six/six stars «Christensen manages to create an atmosphere that fills the reader to the brim, time and time again.»NRK, five/six stars Saabye is a superb storyteller«Lars Saabye Christensen is a wonderful storyteller, with a particual ability to portray the unique in ordinary lives and the tragic in the trivial.» Dagbladet, five/six stars «As writes, as always, so well.»Adresseavisen Unstoppable Christensen«I don't know where Lars Saabye Christensen gets his drinking water from, but someone should immediately examine the source to see what it contains. How else can you explain his churning out works of such high quality every year after he passed 70?»Aftenposten «I don't know where Lars Saabye Christensen gets his drinking water from, but someone should immediately investigate the source to see what it contains. How else can you explain the fact that he keeps churning out works of exceptionally high quality every year after passing the age of 70?»Hammerfestningen «Kitchen is a novel where the dramatist Lars Saabye Christensen truly gets to show off his talent, through scenes, situations, and dialogue that are exceptionally well-crafted and believable.»Stavanger aftenblad «It's a fine [...] novel that Lars Saabye Christensen has written, and the portrait of Gerd is strong and convincing.»Dag og tid Lars Saabye Christensen tendlerly writes the "silent" women's histories«Gerd Minde is fictional. But she will live on for a long time.»Dagsavisen