Heidi Sævareid

Lopsided

Slagside

What do you do if you want to escape from yourself?

I’m someone who can never find the right words, I’m someone who freezes, I’m someone who feels rage on the point of bursting out but never does anything, just freezes or leaves, I just do a bunk, I’m so angry, I’m such a coward – so much so that I really deserve to have to suffer for it.

Vilde moves to Bristol to take a year off after high school. She leaves behind everything she has in Norway – including her boyfriend Markus. In Bristol she is drawn into the environment of the brutal martial art Krav Maga, and meets the strange, manipulative Fiona. This acquaintanceship comes to have fateful consequences, leading Vilde into a corner from which she cannot extricate herself.

An extremely sharp and well-written novel about trying to live with oneself and all one’s lopsidedness.

Nominated for The Brage Prize 2016.

Sævereid slagside hd

‘It is while expounding the relational that Heidi Sævareid displays her strength. She observes human interactions with a sharp eye. Anger and despair, anxiety and mania shines brightly from the dark text. Everything is aflame then.’

Fædrelandsvennen, 5 out of 6 stars
Sævareid, heidi photo ingrid pop hd
Photo: Ingrid Pop

Heidi Sævareid is a Norwegian author, translator and literary critic. Sævareid has a master in Nordic Literature from the University of Oslo. She received the Department of Culture’s Debut Prize in 2013 and has been nominated for the Brage Prize three times. She lives in Bristol.