Moments for Eternity

With low-key humour and a wistful sadness, a sketch of old Birgitte is drawn, intelligent but somewhat left behind by life. An exceedingly melancholy line in Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glas comes to mind: ‘Life passed me by.’ It‘s a little like that for Anfinnsen’s Birgitte too. When this fine and sensitively written novel approaches its close it is obvious that we are following the protagonist towards the definitive end of the cycle of life – I can’t imagine that we’ll be getting a third novel about Birgitte.

This is a very good, wise book, and it’s not just its inevitability that makes it so gripping. It’s the intense empathy, above all within Birgitte, but also the fact that what is most difficult is presented in such exquisite and simple language. They reveal a deep understanding for the sense of resignation and loss when her beloved passes away. [...] Human aging towards total silence is beautifully conveyed in just 109 slender pages, each containing much space for contemplation. The nuances are taken care of, right down to the final full-stop. This is a text you let sink in, not one to talk to death about.

Anfinnsen offers up […] a composition that refuses to over-explain and fill in all the gaps, but rather lets the reader enter and draw their own frames of reference. It creates a vivid experience for the reader. […] This short novel [is] richer and more versatile than many other weightier volumes.

This is simply wonderful.

Old age seen through the eyes of former surgeon Birgitte. Reflective, brave and plaintive on ailing health, aging love and the inevitable end.