Vigdis Hjorth

A controversial bestseller from one of Norway's most intelligent and highly regarded novelists. This emotionally searing novel is at once a wrenching look at a family fractured and a meditation on the nature of trauma and memory..

Will and Testament

Laura Mauler

The author does an amazing job of taking you inside the mind of someone who is trying to get others to acknowledge her trauma, the circling and obsessiveness and paranoia. This realness is actually the downside of the book - it got repetitive, then tedious, then made me feel like I was having a breakdown. Skimming became necessary about 2/3 of the way through the book. 

(view spoiler)[I felt really frustrated throughout that she kept talking about having cut off contact with her family while in actuality staying in constant contact with them. JUST FUCKING DO IT! By the end of the book I was sick of her inability to do the ONE thing that she had to do to help herself, and I was pretty sick of her in general. (hide spoiler)]

Pros: the book gave me lots of food for thought, very good heavy stuff
Cons: we are inside the head of someone having a 30 year long mental breakdown, and the reader feels it

Will and Testament

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