Meet Jan Grue - Selected Title Author

What is the book about?​​

It​’​s about Magne and Hannah, a completely normal couple who have newly embarked on parenthood ​– apart from the fact that he is in a wheelchair. This makes all the difference for how the world sees them, and for what their day-to-day looks like. A regular bus trip becomes an odyssey, a time pinch becomes a vise, keeping a job is a feat ​– but the biggest threat to their relationship is the story that they are not a real couple, not a real family. They live in Norway, a society that considers itself inclusive and progressive and supportive, but which also has a very narrow definition of what a good and worthy life can look like. The book is about Magne and Hannah​’​s attempt to create and hold onto a story in which they can recognize themselves, a story they can live with. We follow them through a year of trying to make it through each day, while they are haunted by the dream of another child, and the fear of failing at life.​​

What sets this book apart from other books in the same genre and/or with similar themes?​​

Are there all that many books in this genre? Disability can be found everywhere in literature, but characters with disability are often tragic, comical or inspiring caricatures. I​’​ve tried to write closer to how the world actually is. Simultaneously, I play with these caricatures ​— Magne and Hannah​’​s everyday is also determined by our society and culture​’​s clich​é​s about disability. Diversity and inclusion and powerful stories and tragic fates ​— these clich​é​s turn up everywhere, whether it is Magne​’​s employers or Hannah​’​s friends who express them. I see a lot of dark humor in how the world both embraces and rejects bodily vulnerability, and have tried to elucidate both the humorous and the dark.​​

Cover

Read more

See full presentation of the book here

Read more about the author here

See all NORLA​’​s Selected Titles for the autumn 2022 here