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Love

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Love

By: Hanne Orstavik, Martin Aitken - translator
Narrated by: Assal Ghawami
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About this listen

 WINNER OF THE 2019 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

A mother and son move to a village in northern Norway, each ensconced in their own world. Their distance has fatal consequences.

Love is the story of Vibeke and Jon, a mother and son who have just moved to a small place in the north of Norway. It's the day before Jon's birthday, and a travelling carnival has come to the village. Jon goes out to sell lottery tickets for his sports club, and Vibeke is going to the library. From here on we follow the two individuals on their separate journeys through a cold winter's night - while a sense of uneasiness grows. Love illustrates how language builds its own reality, and thus how mother and son can live in completely separate worlds. This distance is found not only between human beings, but also within each individual. This novel shows how such distance may have fatal consequences. Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature Village
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Poor Jon. I’m choosing a different end for him because there is an element of ambiguity to the end of Love. I loved the disjointed relationship of mother and son and how they keep missing each other.

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Again an idea that deserves 35 pages and becomes a novel. And what a peculiar one! Orstavik’s polar Norway is full of zombies unable to connect to anyone. The relationship-freak monster mother who spends not a thought on his son; the fun house boy who misses a one-night stand while the price would be some proper talk; people letting in strangers to their homes and then letting them go with no further consequences: and many other alienated strangers in a freezing Norwegian winter night.

Celebrated by the most hideous European writer (Knausgaard) ‘Love’ is a pointlessly menacing one with bad pacing but strong images and efficient prose. Because of these Martian-like Norvegians you can not feel any compassion for the fake victims and can not contact to this artificial novel in any point. I struggled more with the 3 hrs 33 min running time than the complete works of Bernard Malamud. Loads of effort go sour and good poetry leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But I think the translation is radiant.

Narrator was too cheerful for such a darkness. Like licking a pink lollypop while reading. I get very soon rid of this monster of a book.

Mind-numbingly depressing

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