Conscience
Så mye hadde jeg
Monika is 13 years old and knows that all her experiences will soon belong to a time past. She’s 27, and an older professor’s mistress. She’s 37 years old and lives with Geir, they’ve just had Maiken, who rhythmically sucks upon her passifier, a strip of bare skin at the back of her head. She’s 46, with a shedful of quarrelsome chickens, thinking to herself that life is a series of failed attempts at fusing things together. She’s 52, and in the mirror above the fruit and vegs in the grocery store, she sees her mother’s face.
Conscience is a novel of the restless yearning after a life filled with passion, purpose and a sense of belonging – but also about the sense that everything slips, that nothing can be held in place, that perhaps people neither wish to nor can bear the thought of actually belonging to someone.
Nominated for the Brage Prize 2018, the Norwegian Booksellers’ Award 2018, the Literary Critics’ Prize 2018, the Youth’s Critics’ Prize 2018 and the P2-Listeners’ Prize 2018
“Conscience is not the only Trude Marstein’s best, but one of the strongest novels in the year.”
Morgenbladet
“Marstein belongs to the top level of contemporary Norwegian authors.”
Tønsbergs Blad, 5 out of 6 stars
“I think that Trude Marstein actually will dominate the literary scene this autumn. (…). The novel is beautiful and extraordinary well written.”
Fædrelandsvennen, 5 out of 6 stars
