UpLit

Girls’ Kisses and Devil Food Cake

Siri Østli

Maia runs a cafe in Grønland, Oslo, where her glorious baking and the inviting atmosphere she creates captivate many of her customers. Maia's wealthy partner, Victor, works internationally for the UN and the Foreign Ministry, and considers Maia to be ‘irresponsibly carefree’ with a great deal of room for improvement. Maia's friend, Lisen, is a pleasant and cautious schoolteacher, though her entire personality alters when she drinks. Her husband, Lars, is an artist, and has explained to Lisen that artists – for the purposes of retaining their inspiration – must occasionally sleep elsewhere, such as in other people's beds. The third of the friends, Isabella, is a very attractive and highly successful businesswoman. Maia and Lisen aren't entirely sure exactly what she does, but she travels a great deal and has a lot of contact with wealthy older men. Isabella plans a cunning act of revenge when she is dumped by her fiancé, the affluent zoologist Carl Philip. The problems stack up for Lisen, Isabella and Maia. This is a tremendous and entertaining novel, written with humour and warmth by Norway's best-known ‘Queen of feel-good.’

New Horizons

Ellinor Rafaelsen

Amanda er eldste datter og arving til Eikelund herregård på Lade i Trondhjem. Hun er opprørsk og går på tvers av sine konservative foreldres ønsker og planer for fremtiden. Stadige konfrontasjoner gjør at de vil ha henne gift snarest mulig, men Amanda vil noe annet. Da hun ytrer ønske om å flytte hjemmefra, truer faren med å gjøre henne arveløs. – Hygge oss! nærmest freste moren, fremdeles med blikket på Amanda. – Hvordan kan det bli noe hygge ut av dette? Her står jeg og har nettopp fått vite at min datter, min eneste datter, mitt eneste barn, har oppført seg om en … en tøyte. Hun har kastet skam over familien og … Hun trakk pusten i et skjelvende gisp. Amanda var et øyeblikk redd for at hun ville falle om.

Rose-Painted

Annikki Øvergård

ET SÅRT OG RØRENDE STORGÅRDSDRAMA Rebekka Lie er sytten år og foreldreløs. Hun drømmer om å bli malerinne, men må i stedet ta tjeneste på gården Lie i Lilleelvedalen. Samtidig utvandrer kjæresten, Jens, til Amerika. Malerdrømmen synes fjernere enn noen gang, inntil en dekorasjons- og rosemaler kommer til Lie for å søke arbeid. Storbonden på Lie tar godt imot Rebekka, men hans hustru, Nicoline, klarer ikke å gi gården en arving, og er blitt en streng og bitter kvinne. – Så dette er altså hva vi har sagt ja til å ta i hus, sa Nicoline Lie. – Hva slags tjeneste har hun vært i tidligere? De skarpe ordene fikk Rebekka til å skvette. Dette var så visst ikke hva hun hadde ventet. Hjertet dunket i brystet så det måtte høres lang vei. Hun forsøkte å neie, slik hun hadde øvd seg på i tankene, men det ble bare til et klønete kniks. – Jeg har ikke … Jeg er bare sytten. Jeg har bodd sammen med mormor, det har bare vært oss to, stammet hun.

The Nightman's Daughter

May Lis Ruus

Bergen, 1701 Lucie Tønnisdatter husker sin far, som ble ført bort av fremmede menn da hun var liten. Han sa at han alltid skulle ta vare på henne. Likevel måtte hun vokse opp blant andre fattige og foreldreløse barn på det fryktede Tugt- og manufakturhuset. Det er strengt ulovlig, men Lucie sniker seg ut på bosshaugen midt på natten. Hun vil prøve å finne en bursdagsgave til lille Tilly. Lucie ser noe som glitrer - en ring! Men ringen sitter på en hånd, som tilhører en død kvinne. En ung kvinne Lucie kjente så altfor godt...

Long Live the Post Horn!

Vigdis Hjorth

Winner of the Critics’ Award 2012 Ellinor is a communications consultant in her thirties. She can’t help but feel that her life is lacking meaningful intensity, that her life is a trivial contrast to her feelings of despair. When a colleague suddenly leaves the firm Ellinor has to see through a project all by herself. By teaching postal workers in Postkom about media, influence and politics, Ellinor is supposed to better equip them in their opposition to the implementation of EU’s Postal Legislation. However, the question arises; who is teaching whom?Norwegian reviews: ‘If you are looking for a novel about loneliness and the postal service, chose this one. ... It is practically impossible to decide where to begin when discussing Hjorth’s novels. They are immediate, but also stay with you, kicking around in your mind for a good while afterwards. This time, the story even manages to combine politics, the postal service and a lonely young woman. Can this really be of interest? Yes, it can, when Hjorth does it.’ VG ... a fantastic book. There are few contemporary writers who explore loneliness with greater courage. Hurrah for Hjorth! KLASSEKAMPEN I’ve rarely experienced such high from a novel as from Vigdis Hjorth’s new work about the European Union’s postal directive. ... One of her very best books. ... I’m almost tempted to shout Long live Vigdis Hjorth! AFTENPOSTEN Vigdis Hjorth's Leve posthornet! deserves applause for many things, not least for being something as improbable as a successful political novel about (hold tight now!) the postal directive. ... In every way, a very worthwhile novel by Vigdis Hjorth. BERGENS TIDENDE Few writers can describe a woman near the edge as Hjorth can. ... It is almost the most engaging element in this book. And perhaps also the most original. Hjorth foregrounds politics, not the international kind, but the grey local authority dealings – and shows us its crucial role in our lives. This, in a novel whose apparently most straightforward formulations contain within them an ambiguity and depth that is uniquely Hjorth’s. DAGBLADET Hidden inside the novel lies a small pearl of a story about a letter that only arrived at its destination because the postman truly committed himself to find the proper addressee. This makes Leve posthornet! into more than the narrative about a communication advisor and the postal directive. It also follows that Hjorth’s novel is not primarily about atomised contemporary individuals or nostalgia for letters written by hand, but about communication. If you decide to read one novel about the postal directive this year, it should be this one. DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV An impressive journey of purification. ... In Leve posthornet! , Vigdis Hjorth immerses herself in existential seriousness. Her book is a loud scream; Hjorth has written a powerful novel about identity, authenticity and about making courageous choices ... her perceptions are acute and she writes very well. VÅRT LAND ... when Hjorth takes on the problematic issues of politics and of life in general, with her familiar wit and existential courage, all you can do is give in. DAG OG TID It is great feat to write something as rare as a political and personal novel without creating something that is both dull and too internalised. As always, she composes brilliantly precise sentences, with her utterly unique fingertip feel for flow and choice of words. DAGSAVISEN A rare, realistic, not-post-modern box of candies: a story about politics, poetry and melancholy. ADRESSEAVISEN International Reviews:Quirky, unsettling.KIRKUS REVIEWS The ordinary becomes vibrant and life-affirming in Long Live the Post Horn!, an engrossing novel about how even hopeless battles are worth fighting.FOREWORD REVIEWS Hjorth’s substantive and witty novel of personal growth delivers on multiple levels.PUBLISHERS WEEKLY An emotional, philosophical read … this book is wonderful, and I would urge you to seek it out.ELSPELLS BOOKS A superb story about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.THE MODERN NOVELWrenching tenderness from the mouth of irony, Hjorth proves how major effects don’t always come from the heavy-foot pedals.John Freeman, LIT HUB (Most Anticipated Books of 2020) Long Live the Post Horn! is a brilliant study of the mundane, full of unexpected detours and driving prose … Hjorth’s novel ingeniously orbits the intimate stories that are possible only when a character has put words on paper and sent them through the post.John Freeman, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW An engaging, well-honed novel … Hjorth’s writing is both spare and, in an understated way, humorous.POPMATTERS A wry and thoughtful take on contemporary life and love … Full of gorgeous Scandi gloom and bleak truths about human relationships.DAILY MAIL [In] Long Live the Post Horn!, the saga of the EU postal directive is an inspired context for a story about personal despair and political awakening.4COLUMNS An acidic portrait of one woman’s fight to save the postal service.NEW REPUBLIC Hjorth holds a magnifying glass to her characters and they fry like ants under the merciless sunlight of her writing. No one of them escapes unscathed, there are no heroes or villains; what we get is a picture of life in a social democracy that is fraying at the edges.Charlotte Barslund, translator of Long Live the Port Horn! in LITERARY HUB Hjorth expertly interrogates feelings of inadequacy in concise paragraphs of wry prose.NEW STATESMAN Droll and rather delightful.MONOCLE A novel about the chicanery of governmental politics has no right to be this absorbing.MORNING STAR A big strange wonderful paper hug of a book … I cannot recommend it highly enough.LITERARY ADDICT Hjorth asks us to imagine a world where those with narrative power protect the stories of the people over the interests of commerce … The timing was right for this book in Norway in 2012, and the timing is right for us now. A novel like Long Live the Post Horn! does not come around often enough.LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOK

The Beach Hotel

Jeanette Semb

Søstrene Josefine og Martine flytter til tante Tulla etter å ha blitt foreldreløse. Ved siden av tantens hus ligger Drøbak Strandhotell, som imponerer i sin storslagenhet. I hotellet er det et rom som aldri leies ut til gjester. Her ble nemlig en kvinne brutalt drept, og det blir sagt at kvinnene som går inn på rom 11, aldri kommer ut igjen … – Er det hotellet? spurte Josefine og pekte. Hun hadde snudd seg og fått øye på den store, hvite bygningen som lå så majestetisk til, og med en hage som strakte seg nesten hele veien ned til fjorden. – Så vakkert det er, sa Martine med beundring i stemmen. – Det spøker der, kom det plutselig fra Aksel. – Det er en kvinne som går igjen.

Anna's Fate

En kald vinterdag hentes fire år gamle Anna Johnsen av vergerådet. Hun plasseres hos Helga og Nils Bergmoen, som er dypt religiøse, og som ser det som sitt kall å redde henne fra det syndige livet i Ura. – Jeg vil bli med deg, hvisket hun med lav og skjelvende stemme. – Ikke denne gangen, vennen min. Moren gråt nå. – Jeg kommer tilbake og henter deg, det lover jeg, hvisket hun og tørket sine egne tårer før hun løftet hånden og tørket Annas våte kinn. – Jeg ville bare ikke reise før jeg hadde sett deg og sagt adjø, men jeg skal skrive … og jeg kommer tilbake.

The Chains of Life

Christin Grilstad Prøis

The year is 1856. At Heimsett farm, 18-year-old Elen is growing up. Even if the family lives in poverty, Elen is happy. But one day, a great tragedy is revealed. Her father has incurred huge debts.Unexpectedly, the doctor in the village offers to save the family farm from being sold at auction. His one request is that Elen accepts be his bride…

Alvestad

Elin Brend Johansen

– God dag. Jeg er Ingrid Alvestad, og dette er min søster Louise. Ingrid lot som hun ikke la merke til det fiendtlige blikket, men inni seg skalv hun. – Jeg vet hvem dere er. Kvinnen rørte seg ikke. – Dere synes vel det var greit å komme nå, som husbonden er død. Det er som dem sier: Etter døden kommer gribbene. Det er så sant som det er sagt.

På høye hæler over Grønland

Siri Østli

Sophie has suffered from heartache since her boyfriend moved out. Her friend Iselin is supportive, but needs support herself when an affair with her married boss takes an undesirable turn. Meanwhile, Sophie’s sister is getting married, and expects Sophie to be the wedding planner and maid of honor. On top of this Sophie’s father goes missing. This is when the affair with Isac starts…

Mother's Heart

Anne-Lise Boge

Finally, a new series by the bestselling author Anne-Lise Boge! Frost covers the ground and it is nearly Christmas time in the little town of Landvik. The year is 1928 and the young people are taking advantage of the ice-covered fjord to go skating. Maren is the daughter of the merchant Thorvald Bredli, who owns and runs the only store in town. Bredli is a wealthy man, with a lot of influence in the community. And in Landvik, the division between the haves and the have-nots is unmistakable. Maren has just turned 17. She is an only child and the apple of her father’s eye. Since Maren is the only one who can carry on his legacy, he expects her to find a husband of equal social standing. One day the indigent boy Trond Lia is given a job in the storehouse. Trond—the boy with the silky curls and deep-blue eyes… Maren falls head-over-heels, and an innocent crush deepens into love. The young woman is unaware of the dramatic consequences this relationship will have in regard to her life and the lives of others. 4 books, 4 bookw will be published in 2010. TRANSLATIONS:Arvesynd, 1998-2005. Sold to Sweden, Finland and Poland