Agnes Ravatn

This psychological drama reminds us ““Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

Quite by chance, Karin encounters Iris Vilden, her childhood nemesis, to whom she hasn’t spoken in 25 years. That meeting later leads to an offer for Karin and her husband Kai to spend a week in Iris’ luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords. While there, Karin meets a neighbour, Per Sinding, and, believing she has been treated disparagingly, she implies that the holiday home belongs to her and Kai. Then Kai joins in the charade and the lies are compounded thereby creating further problems and a domino structure of complications.

In many ways, this book is a character study of a person who is resentful and envious. I was reminded of the words in “Desiderata” which warn “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” Karin is very bitter. She admits that “The dissatisfaction that comes from comparing myself with others was more my cup of tea.” Always she feels inadequate and worthless. Meeting Iris who is a well-known actress just increases Karin’s insecurity. She has much for which to be grateful: a loving and supportive husband, two children who are doing well, a house in a nice neighbourhood, and a stable job as a legal consultant for the municipal government. But this is not enough.

Kai is Karin’s foil. She acknowledges, “He wasn’t prone to envy, unlike me; he didn’t instinctively compare himself with others” and “I was insecure and neurotic, Kai was calm and confident” and he “compensated for all my weaknesses. Offset my inferiority complex with his poised sense of calm. It’s not that Kai lacked introspection, but it never sent him into a negative spiral.” At the holiday home, he’s happy to embrace and enjoy the opportunity, whereas Karin can’t relax because her surroundings remind her of what she doesn’t and won’t ever have.

Karin is aware of some of her flaws, but she just doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about them. She knows she needs to “pull myself out of this spiral, to rise above it.” She admits to being “prone to destructive patterns of thinking at the earliest opportunity, my negative assumptions ran away with me.” She thinks of herself as damaged, superficial, and trivial. She even worries about negatively influencing her children, that she’d “turn them into victims of never-ending self-scrutiny, I’d infect them with my solipsism.”

Though she sometimes seems self-aware, there are times when it’s obvious that she’s not totally honest with herself. Since Karin is the sole narrator, we are given only her perspective and I certainly had doubts about her reliability. For instance, she describes what happened when she and Iris were in school together. Though Iris behaved appallingly if Karin’s version is accurate, it is Karin’s reaction that seems extreme and irrational. Later, when she learned Iris lived two blocks away, Karin moved! And she blames Iris for her own underachievement: “I could have been someone else, I thought to myself, if it hadn’t been for Iris holding me back, or worse: causing me to hold myself back.” She has such an obsessive hatred for someone she hasn’t seen in 25 years? As I read, I kept wishing Karin had taken to heart the words of the Greek philosopher Epictetus who said, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

Karin is also implacably judgmental of anyone who seems to have a better life than she does. Of course she questions Iris’ motives in giving them a week’s retreat: is she just showing off or trying to humiliate Karin or “To make sure my holiday is spent in the maximum amount of misery”? She assumes there is an ulterior motive. A statement by Per has Karin jumping to the conclusion that she has been “well and truly dismissed” instead of thinking that maybe what he says is “a straightforward statement, not an attempt to strip me of my humanity.” She asks Hilma Ekhult, Kai's wife, "purposely puerile questions," but then judges her for her "condescending and terse responses"? Eventually Karin even starts to question Kai’s motives. Ironically, she sees others as judgmental when she herself is. Isn’t this called projection?

Though this is not a conventional suspense novel, there is a lot of tension. The book is an uncomfortable read; I kept silently screaming at her to just tell the truth. The false reality that she and Kai create is not sustainable so tension ramps up. It’s only a matter of time before the dominoes will come crashing down.

Besides being angry and frustrated with her, I also felt so sad for Karin. She is a lawyer, apparently good at her job, and Kai is a master carpenter. Because of their knowledge and skills, both are able to help Kai and Hilma. Karin has so much, but she doesn’t appreciate her blessings and so can’t be happy. Because of her deceptions, Karin deprives herself of an honest conversation with Hilma, her favourite author. She and Hilma even have similar opinions about the property search engine developed by Iris’ husband, so the two could well have become friends.

This book is brief, really more a novella, but it is dense and powerful. I could go on and on because there is so much to analyze and admire. The author has an insightful understanding of human psychology. I was left in awe, and I think others will be too.

I’ve read Ravatn’s previous novels, The Bird Tribunal (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2018/02/review-of-bird-tribunal-by-agnes-ravatn.html) and The Seven Doors (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-of-seven-doors-by-agnes-ravatn.html), and I highly recommend these as well.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski).… (más)

A story of suspense set on the Norwegian fjords. Karin and Kai accept the offer of a week’s stay free gratis in a holiday home belonging to Karin’s arch rival from school, Iris, in exchange for some business advice. When Karin bumps into their new neighbours who are staying at the next cabin along, things start to get out of hand when Karin tells a white lie.

This is a curious little tale about obsession and jealousy. Karin is not only obsessed with her nemesis, Iris, but she’s also obsessed with herself! She really does dig herself some holes. I would call this book a novella rather than a novel - it’s very short. It’s well written nevertheless with a creeping sense of unease throughout. It’s not an action packed thriller by any means but it’s quite compelling all the same. As my dad used to say, liars have to have long memories so I was getting a little worried about how long Karin would keep up the pretence before her world came tumbling down. Never try to compete with the neighbours even if the grass seems greener - it rarely is. An enjoyable and engaging quick read.… (más)

A slow burning, atmospheric read, lingering with an air of menace and mystery.

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, and I should know as I have moved around a lot, I am currently in my 13th, and hopefully my last house! But this book takes the stress of moving house to the max!

With a forced move thrust upon them and Nina’s childhood home about to be destroyed to make way for a new development project, it is with a heavy heart that she begins house hunting.

The logical step would be to move into the house that her husband Mads inherited from his aunt, but along with the fact Nina has no desire to move into that house, there is another obstacle in the way. The house is currently being rented out to a young single mum, Mari Nilson and her son. That is until Nina’s daughter, Ingeborg, turns up on the doorstep informing Mari that she has to move out because she will be moving in.

Following Ingeborg’s visit, in a state of shock, Mari packs her things and returns to her parents, then within a few days Mari disappears without a trace, leaving her three-year-old son behind, much to the shock and disbelief of her parents and to Nina’s horror.

Feeling that she, or rather her daughter, is responsible in some way for Mari’s disappearance, Nina takes it upon herself to find out what happened to Mari, but as she begins her investigation she stumbles across some of her own families secrets, secrets that have been buried for decades. Secrets that somehow have a connection to Mari’s disappearance and some people seem to know more than they are letting on.

This is an extremely atmospheric, fully immersive read that has you investing in both the story and the characters as it brings you face to face with Nina’s inner turmoil as well as with the other deeply flawed characters. Not all of the likeable!

The only thing I did find was that the lack of the quotation marks made it harder to follow the flow of the book at times with what bits were thoughts and speech. But that might just be me. My lazy brain having to concentrate that little bit more than it’s used too!

Fans of Nordic Noir will be in book heaven with this one as Agnes Ravatn firmly cements herself with some of the greats.… (más)

A slow burning, atmospheric read, lingering with an air of menace and mystery.

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, and I should know as I have moved around a lot, I am currently in my 13th, and hopefully my last house! But this book takes the stress of moving house to the max!

With a forced move thrust upon them and Nina’s childhood home about to be destroyed to make way for a new development project, it is with a heavy heart that she begins house hunting.

The logical step would be to move into the house that her husband Mads inherited from his aunt, but along with the fact Nina has no desire to move into that house, there is another obstacle in the way. The house is currently being rented out to a young single mum, Mari Nilson and her son. That is until Nina’s daughter, Ingeborg, turns up on the doorstep informing Mari that she has to move out because she will be moving in.

Following Ingeborg’s visit, in a state of shock, Mari packs her things and returns to her parents, then within a few days Mari disappears without a trace, leaving her three-year-old son behind, much to the shock and disbelief of her parents and to Nina’s horror.

Feeling that she, or rather her daughter, is responsible in some way for Mari’s disappearance, Nina takes it upon herself to find out what happened to Mari, but as she begins her investigation she stumbles across some of her own families secrets, secrets that have been buried for decades. Secrets that somehow have a connection to Mari’s disappearance and some people seem to know more than they are letting on.

This is an extremely atmospheric, fully immersive read that has you investing in both the story and the characters as it brings you face to face with Nina’s inner turmoil as well as with the other deeply flawed characters. Not all of the likeable!

The only thing I did find was that the lack of the quotation marks made it harder to follow the flow of the book at times with what bits were thoughts and speech. But that might just be me. My lazy brain having to concentrate that little bit more than it’s used too!

Fans of Nordic Noir will be in book heaven with this one as Agnes Ravatn firmly cements herself with some of the greats.

The Seven Doors will be published in paperback on 17 Sept. 2020 or it is available now on eBook.… (más)