Kjersti Rorgemoen

A Practical Person

Liv Indrebø wants a place of her own and to become a practical person. She buys a secluded smallholding so she can work outside and put the old house back into use. At the museum she struggles to believe in the words she has been employed to produce.

A Practical Person is a taut and concise novel about not going to seed in a landscape ripe for conservation. History is kept at a safe distance, but what about life in practice? Can a woman manage to transform chaos into order on her own? And how do you love something that you don’t need?

Reviews:

“Rorgemoen is an author who has a sense for the fractures, the paradoxes and the absurdities of life[…] In short, it’s a pleasure to read about the messed-up and weird – but all the same recognisable – people she portrays.”
- Marta Norheim, NRK

“Even though it’s a novel barely ninety pages long, A Practical Person is impressively good at letting people and events epitomise aspects of the Zeitgeist.” 5 out of 6 stars
- Gro Jørstad Nilsen, Bergens Tidende

“It’s the main character’s thoughts and phrasing that make Kjersti Rorgemoen’s new book worth reading.”
- Bernard Ellefsen, Morgenbladet

“Kjersti Rorgemoen’s prose brings together extraordinarily intimate language with a profound gaze at the exterior and interior of the Norwegian landscape and mentality.”
- Tom Egil Hverven, Klassekampen

“One of this spring’s wittiest and sharpest novels.”
- Ellen Sofie Lauritzen, Dagens Næringsliv