Trude Marstein

Doing Good

Gjøre godt

Saturday night has just turned into Sunday as Peter approaches the town where he is about to start a new job. In a train travelling in the opposite direction Peter catches sight of his ex-lover Karoline leaving the town. Peter and Karoline are just two of the hundred and eighteen characters that inhabit Trude Marstein’s daringly constructed novel, Doing good.

This is a novel which framework is defined precisely by time and place, but which composition is driven forward by strong sensory and emotional impressions. Shifting elegantly from narrator to narrator, it captures the most diverse characters and environments, all within a small Norwegian town and in the space of one July weekend. A book about passion and death, work and escape, drunkenness and reconciliation, bewilderment and reflection. And ultimately about how, as human beings, in the midst of everything life throws at us, we struggle to do good.

Bok 27

Doing Good is a novel which first and foremost impresses with its display of brillilant technical control from the author’s hand.”

Aftenposten

“A convincing piece of handicraft that contains an implicit diagnosis of contemporary life.”

Dagens Næringsliv
Forfatter 27

Trude Marstein has confirmed her prominent position among younger Norwegian authors. She received the Debutant Prize in 1998, and later won the Sult Prize and the Dobloug Prize. She has written several novels, a children’s book and essays. She is listed on the Norwegian equivalent of the Granta list.

PREVIOUS TITLES
Sterk sult, plutselig kvalme, novel 1998.
Plutselig høre noen åpne en dør, novel 2000.
Happy Birthday, children’s book 2000.
Elin og Hans, novel 2002.
Konstruksjon og inderlighet, essays 2004.
Byens ansikt, play 2005.