Marie Aubert

Can I Come Home with You

Kan jeg bli med deg hjem

In these nine stories the distance is short from longing to shamelessness, and from shamelessness to transgression.

A worn-out father hits his daughter and tries to stop her from telling others. A sixteen year old girl sneaks into somebody else’s house. A young woman has bruises on her body and doesn’t know if she likes it. A man goes to South America with his wife to adopt a boy, but finds himself drawn to a slightly too old girl.

The stories in Marie Aubert’s first book are about people on the verge of breaking out – from friendships, marriages and relationships. They all do things they are ashamed of, while clinging to the idea that they are leaving for something greater.

‘If you’re only going to read one short story collection in 2020, then let it be this collection of simple, incisive stories (…) Aubert presents her reader with an explosion of emotions with a single sentence. It’s at the same time beautiful and cringe-inducing.’

Litteratursiden.dk

‘Aubert sees her characters with x-ray glasses, to the point where you’re almost embarrassed on their behalf. With simple means she shows us their pride, their jealousy or their schadenfreude.’

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Photo: Agnete Brun

Marie Aubert was born in 1979 and lives in Oslo. She made her debut with the short story collection Can I Come Home with You (2016), which was a huge success in Norway, selling more than 10,000 copies. Her acclaimed first novel Grown-ups (2019) won the Young People’s Critics’ Prize (Norway’s equivalent to the Goncourt des lyceens) and was nominated for the Booksellers’ Prize.