I Call You Pyotr

In language raw and direct, Hanne Ramsdal writes about being so in love, almost to the point of madness. [...] Ramsdal shows us painfully well how far it is possible to go in justifying one’s own choices in the name of love, and how willing one can be to excuse the one you love.

The novel is a sensuous, sensitive and painful story in which Ramsdal captivates the reader – all the way to the end. This has turned the book into a favourite this autumn in Norway.

The author mercilessly describes how far a person can be willing to go once they’re infatuated, obsessively interpreting everything, cutting themselves off from friends who are only trying to give advice, growing unfocussed and repetitive and losing the ability to handle what life throws at them, and always waiting around once they are the amygdala’s prisoner. Infatuation’s wicked dynamics are laid out for the reader in a masterful way.

Hanne Ramsdal writes painfully and precisely about losing herself in others.

I Call You Pyotr is a well written and well composed novel with a surge towards the end, and her daughter Kajsa is portrayed with insight and empathy into the anxiety and loneliness she feels when her mother simply leaves to meet her lover or forgets to pick her up from kindergarten.

I Call You Pyotr is a strong narrative about playing the game – until everything falls apart.