Linn T. Sunne

Happy

Mo has just moved in to a new place together with her father who has got a job at the municipality. We meet Mo on her first day at school in seventh grade, and see how she handles the curious questions from teachers and classmates. She is well prepared and tells willingly, particularly about the absent mother who is a fashion photographer in New York. At home, Mo and her dad have a chummy and cheerful tone together, but the readers can sense that something is not quite right, and gradually the successful image begins to crackle. At school, her classmates slowly begin to see through Mo’s version of her family story. She is exposed and rejected and has to start from scratch … This is a story about being new in class, lying and having a poker face that crumbles.

Already in her first book, the author showed great empathy for children and young people's thoughts and feelings. Her writing is light and absorbing, taking the readers along. Happy is structured like a crime story, in that only pieces of the story are revealed to the readers. With such dramaturgical drive, combined with her usual accessible language, she manages to reach even further.