Near Distance
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the 2025 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize
“Stoltenberg’s elegant prose makes each scene . . . so engaging that it gives plot a bad name.”—John Self, Guardian
For her entire life, Karin has fled anything and anyone that tries to possess her. Her job demands little, she mostly socializes with men she meets online, and she’s rarely in touch with Helene, her adult daughter. But when Helene’s marriage is threatened, she turns, uncharacteristically, to her mother for commiseration, and a long weekend away in London. As the two women embark on their uneasy companionship, Karin’s past, and the origins of her studied detachments, are cast in a new light, and she can no longer ignore their effects—on not only herself and her own relationships, but on her daughter’s as well.
An unnerving, closely observed study of character—and the choices we do and do not make—Near Distance introduces Hanna Stoltenberg as a writer of piercing insight and startling lucidity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stoltenberg debuts with a stunning portrait of a strained mother-daughter relationship. Karin, an Oslo woman in her 50s, enjoys meeting men online and such moments of solitary peace as smoking cigarettes or drinking a glass of wine. Her daughter, Helene, is in her early 30s, and has just found out her husband is cheating. When Karin reaches out to comfort Helene, the gesture stuns each of the women. Their prickly interactions are rendered elegantly by Stoltenberg, especially during a weekend together in London, where Karin struggles to be emotionally present ("She wants to have a good relationship with Helene, she really does, but it's as if they can't agree on what a good relationship means"). In flashbacks, Karin reflects on her pattern of distancing herself from others, which stretches to her early years with Helene's father. Karin's contradictory emotional realities—at times harsh, at times gentle—are observed precisely and beautifully, and feel true to the complexities of real life. It's a winner.
