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Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg
Don't Stay Gone

A novel about love and being the outsider, powerlessness and personal responsibility.

The morning is passing as usual in one of London’s finer neighbourhoods, even if yet another autumn storm is rolling in above the city. Vibeke and Torbjørn are getting ready to go to work, and Ella and Leo are on their way to school. The idea was to make a fresh start, especially for their daughter Ella, who was getting bullied back home in Norway. Torbjørn works at the embassy, where a controversial artist is attending a dinner that same evening. Vibeke is a psychologist and researcher into personality disorders, and goes along to the exhibition at lunchtime to see what the controversy is all about.

Then the school calls. Ella didn’t show up. Nobody knows where she has gone. We follow Vibeke’s desperate search for her daughter through a capital city marked by Brexit, the fear of terrorism, and extreme weather. Along the way, questions begin to emerge: Where did it go wrong? How do you let go without losing grip?

In Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg’s new novel, the characters move through the shadows cast by high-level politics to find a way back to each other. Don’t Stay Gone is a novel about love and being the outsider, powerlessness and personal responsibility.

Kroneberg’s book has a sure and steady momentum. The story is credible and Vibeke’s persistent brooding over what lies in Ella’s best interests is written with clear insight into the burden of responsibility that every parent bears.

Vårt Land

The effect of this hunt for a hugely unhappy and vulnerable young girl is not only hectic, dramatic, and pulsating with panic – it’s full of perspective and tenderness, too.
5 out of 6 stars

Stavanger Aftenblad

Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg

Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg
Liv Øverland

Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg (born 1972) debuted with the novel No-one Will Hear How Quiet It Is (2010), which was proclaimed by Aftenposten as the year’s best debut. Since then she has published five critically acclaimed novels, and in spring 2019 she is back again with her seventh, Don’t Stay Gone.

Foreign rights

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Edited November 23, 2020 by Gyldendal Agency