From acclaimed Norwegian writer Mona Høvring comes an intimate and stirring coming-of-age and sexual awakening story of a young woman following her own path to destruction and reconciliation. Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable. When Laura meets the older, more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter sets in motion a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge, pushing the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places-and eventually toward the start of a new life.
"Economical, rhythmic in ways that express the emotional depth and complexity of its protagonist and the people that move in and out of her physical and psychic corporeality, Something That Helps, masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, is a perfectly crafted novel and a tour de force by an exceptional writer in her prime."
Beatriz Hausner
"Sensuous and masterfully constructed, Something That Helps is a moving and poetic narrative that unleashes its subtle power through vivid imagery and evocative vulnerability."
