The Other Mother

A courageous story about a mother in crisis from one of Norway‘s most exciting writers, for readers of Boulder and Detransition, Baby Silje Marie has been keeping a secret from her wife. She loves one of her sons more than the other. In their sleepy suburb of Oslo, she‘s given Henry and Olav the childhood she never had: organic cotton clothing, a house by the forest, apple pies baked with Grandma on summer afternoons. But when Silje Marie stays behind to clear the house for an upcoming renovation, buried thoughts resurface. She is haunted by the sense that only one of her children truly feels like her own-an admission that would destroy her wife, Helene. Worse still, there is the other mother. A woman befriended in secret, whose son‘s resemblance to Henry is impossible to ignore. Spiky, daring and feverishly intense, this is a story about the complex confinement and joy of family life, and a mother drawn towards dismantling the home she has fought so hard to build. ‘Raises impressive ruminations on the nature of this ownership we call love‘ Kenan Orhan, author of The Renovation ‘Brave, well-written, distinctive‘ Morgenbladet ‘Exceptionally powerful‘ Vårt Land ‘Digs deep into the gnarly emotions hidden behind domesticity‘ Szilvia Molnar, author of The Nursery