Hanne Ramsdal
I Call You Pjotr

A gripping and disturbing investigation of erotic obsession and boundless hope.

Lone and Paul are both in their mid-thirties. They meet at a party, and begin a playful flirtation in which they take on the roles of Olga and Piotr, communicating in broken English. But the flirting soon becomes a kind of erotic game – with no promises. Everything is free and alluring – but who is really meeting whom? And what about when the game encroaches on reality, erasing vast swathes of real life in favour of an obsessive desire for something that may not exist?

The novel explores the fragile line between roleplay, delusions and reality – along with the consequences of pretending to be more reckless and tough than you really are in an age that worships individual freedom.

I Call You Pyotr is a strong narrative about playing the game – until everything falls apart.

Universitas

I Call You Pyotr is a well written and well composed novel with a surge towards the end, and her daughter Kajsa is portrayed with insight and empathy into the anxiety and loneliness she feels when her mother simply leaves to meet her lover or forgets to pick her up from kindergarten.

Dag og Tid

Hanne Ramsdal writes painfully and precisely about losing herself in others.

Klassekampen

Hanne Ramsdal

Cecilie Semec

Hanne Ramsdal (b. 1974 in Copenhagen) studied literary science at the University of Oslo, and has published short works of prose in various anthologies and journals. She also writes screenplays, and co-directed and wrote the script for the short film Hangman, which was screened at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad in the summer of 2007. Her first book, I Closed the Door Behind Him When He Left, was published in 2006.