Margaret, Are You Grieving
Margaret, er du i sorg
Margaret is six years old when her mother takes her own life. She gets help from her father, her imagination, and various children’s games to push away the grief and shock, but the pain doesn’t disappear. It’s just hidden away.
As an adult, Maria begins to study medicine, and faced with illness and death, her childhood trauma is revived. She has always been able to rely on her childhood fantasies to help her cope, but now they change form and become more unpredictable. They no longer lead her away from, but straight into the pain, and things start to crack.
Margaret, Are You Grieving is an honest and fearless portrait of a young woman who is drawn towards life and death simultaneously. The book won the Riksmål Prize, an award given to a literary work with outstanding prose.
Winner of the 2024 Riksmål Prize
Nominated for the European Union Prize for Literature 2025
‘A powerful novel about suicide, grief, and guilt, and the path into madness. In a crystal-clear, elegant prose, the novel revolves around losing oneself […] It is strong, it is eerie and captivating, the language vibrates both elastically and tensely, making the serious text soar. [Fonn’s] eye for human imperfection and strength is sharp and investigative. […] Young Maria Kjos Fonn is well on her way into an important literary career with her novels about addiction, outsiders, and now about death and life in a deeply probing manner.’
Adresseavisen, 6/6 stars
‘Maria Kjos Fonn is on her way to becoming a significant figure in Norwegian literature.’
Stavanger Aftenblad, 5/6 stars
