On an ordinary day in Bergen, Norway, in the late 1980s, Anna is reading in the garden while her two-year-old daughter, Laura, plays on her tricycle. Then, in one startling moment, Anna misreads a word, an alternate universe opens up, and Laura disappears. Twenty years or so later, life has gone on as if nothing happened, but in each of the women's lives, something is not quite right.
Both Anna and Laura continue to exist, but they are invisible to each other and forgotten in each other's worlds. Both are writers and amateur pianists. They are married; Anna had two more children after Laura disappeared, and Laura is expecting a child of her own. They worry about their families, their jobs, the climate, and whether this reality is all there is.
"As translated by Kari Dickson, all three [of Øyehaug's] books also contain pleasurably unexpected descriptions and touches of humor . . . The novel is an ingenious pocket universe where time moves not just forward or even backward but in sideways leaps. Questions about the nature of reality are made poignant by the characters asking them: women struggling to understand who they are in the shadow
Caitlin Horrocks, The New York Times Book Review
"Øyehaug is splendidly clever . . . But she's also thoughtful, using her elaborately conceived, interconnected narrative spirals to ask questions about the relevance and importance of stories, and about connections between the literarily lived life and the literally lived life. Simultaneously, she inquires about and, in spite of everything, enacts the divine power of language to create."
Claire Messud, Harper's
"Heartfelt and heartbreaking . . . Kari Dickson, who translated Øyehaug's two prior English-language books, repeatedly evokes these 'infinite universes' in luxuriant sentences . . . And she beautifully conveys the soft emotions characteristic of Øyehaug's writing . . . Øyehaug's utterly unique novel will sit with you long after you finish playing your part."
