From Here to Hiroshima

As with her previous books, From Here to Hiroshima by Sunniva Lye Axelsen (born 1980 in Stavanger) is written with authority and insight, gallows humour and a black realism, and in language that switches from the splendidly vulgar to the unaccountably beautiful.

A fairly dark but genuinely funny tale of a medical assistant who hates other people almost as much as she hates her own life...All those with inside knowledge of the Norwegian health and social services will find themselves nodding and smiling in recognition of much here, while everyone will appreciate its brilliant descriptions and wise, compassionate insight.

Sunniva Lye Axelsen casts a humorous light on the dismal gloom of the care institution...Ingrid’s dark family history, her compulsive washing, and her growing obsession with Thomas’s liberated friend, Ida, are just a few of the elements that shape the novel’s tension and movement.

I ought to have read Sunniva Lye Axelsen’s novels and short stories earlier, no doubt about it. Critics such as Sigmund Jensen and Ane Farsethås, or Marta Norheim’s book Oppdatering fra lykkelandet (2017) should have long convinced me of her unique ability to blend literary cliché with humour and violence in insightful ways ... Along the way Axelsen demonstrates how well she writes dialogue. Ingrid’s ability to interrupt conversations or alter their direction is irresistible.

The unique cast of characters turn From Here to Hiroshima into a gripping read from the very first page. Axelsen’s dark humour and whipcrack satire soon make an appearance, not least in a hysterical scene from the Health and Social Service’s more-than-averagely decadent Christmas party.