2025
Like It or Lump It is a book about the sudden upheaval and change a serious diagnosis can cause.
In the spring of 2023, mum-of-two Line Norman Hjorth was diagnosed with breast cancer. Barely six months later her mother – author Vigdis Hjorth – received the exact same diagnosis. In this book, where the narrative switches between mother and daughter, we follow the two women through their treatment as both patient and next of kin. Two roles that were completely new for them both, and two roles which can be difficult to balance - and which mother and daughter manage in very different ways. They go through the highs and lows, both in terms of medical treatment and their parent-child relationship. But at least they both got new boobs as part of the process!
This is an exceptionally moving story – unsentimental and poignantly narrated.
'Mother and daughter Hjorth's story about having cancer is in every way heartbreakingly good.'
'Mother and daughter Hjorth are not the first to write their way through an encounter with cancer, but the complexity of being both patient and next of kin at the same time gives their story a dimension of its own. And in times like these, it certainly doesn't hurt that readers get a well-written and deeply engaging insight into what a social masterpiece the Nordic health systems are.'
'[...] create a community with this book about their own experiences with cancer. [...] therapeutic reading.'
Vigdis Hjorth, Line Norman Hjorth
Lina Hindrum
