Emely Benedicte Kahrs - Selected Title Author

What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve explored the theme of mother-child relationships in my last two novels and my poetry collection; it’s a theme that never ceases to inspire me. The relationship is so close and so complex, offering so much to explore and so much to try to put into words. This time, I wanted to focus on a detailed language that follows the flow of events. I also observe how life intertwines everything, how we carry themes both big and small within us simultaneously. We have so many layers. It’s also fascinating to examine how we use social structures as comfort, as anchors—and how we exist in relation to others, how we are shaped by those around us. In this book, we only experience Nelly’s inner world, but the simultaneity of the internal and external applies to all the women at the gathering. There are always multiple parallel narratives unfolding wherever we are. What is visible is never the whole truth.

What sets your book apart from other books within the same genre?

I get the sense that most books on this subject depict parents through the eyes of their adult children. In my novel, we hear the mother’s voice—not the daughter’s. It’s tricky for a mother to acknowledge her parental shortcomings or to admit her struggles and insecurity, while a son or daughter complaining about their mother is readily acceptable. What makes my book unique, however, might also be how everything unfolds at once: her inner world and the outer world, the everyday and the existential, the small and the profound. She flounders in every direction. All of this can coexist within a single sentence, swirling inside Nelly. I’ve enjoyed writing sentences that start in one place and end somewhere entirely different, perhaps even touching upon something unexpected along the way.

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