Before You Sleep, by Linn Ullmann

Before You Sleep was originally written in Norwegian. While it was not viewed as controversial in Norway, American reviewers have regarded it as a "detailed and sexually frank novel." Such labels aside, this is a great and strong story of a Norwegian family, Blom, with strong and also somewhat eccentric women, that spans several generations. The story moves from Oslo to Brooklyn, both places well known to the author.

The story is complicated. It is told, over time, from the mouth of one of the key characters in the book, Karin. It is about relations inside and out of the family, about motherhood, marriage, emotions, love, and even infidelity.

Before You Sleep is an exceptional debut book. It is very well worth reading. Ullman tells her story in a way that makes the characters come alive, and make you sympathize with their strange actions and understand their emotions.

“Of this autumns literary output, novelist Linn Ullmann is the wickedest and wittiest, and because she writes with a silent sincerity and merges all this with wit, intelligence and a generous picture of human beings, the novel is a real pleasure to read.”
  -- CECILIE WINGER, FÆDRELANDSVENNEN (Norway)

“Before You Sleep is infernally well written. The debutante, Linn Ullmann, has, from page one, found her own form and language, consistent in style until the end.”
  GT (Sweden)

Link to a complete bibliography, with reviews of all of Linn Ullman's books.

Stella Descending is another very good and interesting book by Linn Ullmann that you may want to consider.
Buy from amazon UK: Before You Sleep or Stella Descending.

A Blessed Child, by Linn Ullmann

(Original title in Norwegian: Et velsignet barn.) In this book, Norwegian author Linn Ullmann explores sentiments and events like guilt, reconciliation and the passing of time, in a novel powerfully driven by raw sensuality and violence. It is a book that makes a strong impression.

The novel tells the tale of three sisters sharing a father but with three different mothers - and their fragile relationship to their father. A Blessed Child starts with Erika nervously driving through a snowstorm to the Swedish island of Hammarso to visit her 84-year-old father, Isak, a volatile and aloof genius. Laura, and Molly are also planning to brave a snowstorm to visit their failing. Isak Lovenstad, was one of the pioneers of gynecological ultrasound, and now has exiled himself in what used to be his summer house on the island after the death of his second wife.

As the three women make their way separately across Norway into Sweden to visit him, they remember the idyllic summers they spent on the island, gathered together by their larger-than-life father. The sisters also try to deal with an event that took place on the island in the summer of 1979 - 25 years ago.

When they were young, the three young girls entered into changing alliances with other summer guests. One of these was Ragnar, a boy who was always running and in some strange way attracted to Isak.

Something bad happened that summer. Something no one was willing to assume responsibility for. Now, more than twenty five years later, it is still there. Still an issue needing to be dealt with.

A Blessed Child is a rich portrayal of the life-stories of three women, and also a fine portrait of a father – both merciless and tender. It's a story of girls that behave bad! Very bad indeed. It's structure is mosaic - and very appropriate to the tale. Linn Ullmann is a terrific writer. Her novel's great strengths are the brilliantly drawn characters and the dialogues. A great and highly recommended book!

“A deeply disturbing and powerful novel with parallels to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies … Ullmann’s pen offers a sober narrative, never too sentimental or obvious, keeps us enthralled with hints, pulls us into the core from many different angles … merciless and credible"
ALF KJETIL WALGERMO, VÅRT LAND (Norway)