Tove Nilsen

Heavenly Conditions

Honesty meant leaving again.

She is back on Crete. This warm island is like a second home to her. On her walks, the scent of wild thyme is everywhere, and she keeps running into a young cat with her seven kittens.

This journey is not like the previous ones. She has recently lost her father. She has broken up with a man after several years. She has met a man she is still learning to know. Is there something about love between adult people that makes her more vulnerable than before?

On Crete the light and the bright colours are the same as ever, but she notices that there are fewer jobs and less money here now. In the sea surrounding the beautiful island boats full of refugees sink. When she meets her old friend Manolis, she sees that his face is marked by illness.

Heavenly Conditions is a rich novel of mortality and creative powers, about breaking up and finding love again.