Maria Kjos Fonn - Selected Title Author

What is your book about?

The novel follows Margaret, a medical student living with an immense, unprocessed grief after her mother’s suicide. As she encounters illness and dead bodies during her studies, long-repressed memories start to surface, ultimately driving her to a psychotic break.

The book explores trauma and sorrow, but also reconciliation—particularly with her father, who raised her on his own after her mother’s death, and with the suicide and the guilt Margaret has been carrying since childhood. It is also a story about love—with Ola, a fellow student and her boyfriend, who has waited for her through years of illness and darkness. Ultimately, the novel is about choosing life, about committing to a different reality after everything has been torn apart.

What inspired you to write this book?

The title, Margaret, Are You Grieving, is taken from the poem “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The poem addresses a young child who is watching autumn leaves falling, unknowingly grieving her own mortality as she watches nature wither. I wanted to write about a child’s relationship with death when it has been a close presence, and how early encounters with death can shape a person’s entire life. I like exploring children’s minds and I’m fascinated by the way they process existential shocks, how those moments leave deep imprints that shape their perception of the world as adults. I’ve also been drawn to the existential aspect of suicide—an act so taboo, so difficult to comprehend. But I have also always felt an equal, if not greater, pull toward life than toward death. What allows people to continue living after experiencing immense trauma? How do they find meaning despite pain and sorrow?

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