Undis Brekke

Sharp, stirring and full of black humour, Gunnhild
Øyehaug’s long awaited second novel is an
unforgettable read.

Undis Brekke is about 37-year-old Undis Brekke
who returns to the farming community she grew
up in, in order to teach Norwegian at the local college,
even though she is thoroughly fed up with
students. She arrives just in time for the annual
Christmas dinner at the faculty for Nordic studies,
where she is forced to confront various scraps and
pieces of her own childhood and adolescence that
she has attempted to sweep under the carpet.

Betrayal, hope and anxiety, writer’s block, male
and female exes, pre-menstrual syndrome, childhood
friends and parents are all potent ingredients
in this portrait of a woman who is struggling to
keep her head above water. How can you defend
your own values, how can you see your own retina,
how can you approach your own mother and how
can you eat a whole, charcoaled sheep’s head …
The novel addresses all these issues.