Shamed schoolteacher, Mathilde, moves to a dairy farm in the Norwegian countryside for an `easier life’, but she’s soon up to her old tricks . upending and unsettling the lives of two reclusive farmers.? Exquisitely written, razor-sharp and simmering with an unexpected tension, Toxic marks the return of one of Norway’s finest writers. ? ‘Flatland has the gift that I most often covet in the work of other writers: the ability to make everyday events compelling . how the quietest existence can brim with urgency and drama’?Ann Morgan ? `Helga Flatland writes with elegance and subtle humour’?Daily Express ? `The author has been dubbed the Norwegian Anne Tyler and for good reason’ Good Housekeeping ? ————– ? When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life. ? Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes. ? But beneath the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral surface of life on the farm, something darker and more sinister starts to vibrate and, with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing . everywhere. ? ————Praise for Helga Flatland ? `The most beautiful, elegant writing I’ve read in a long time’ Joanna Cannon ? ‘Helga Flatland writes with such astuteness about families’ Prima ‘I absolutely loved its quiet, insightful generosity’?Claire King ‘So perceptive and clever’?R?n?n Hession ?`Thoughtful and reflective’?Observer ? ‘A beautifully written, bittersweet, moving and poignant . a wise novel of great insight’?NB Magazine ? `Poignant and beautifully written . The prose and style, with the dialogue enveloped in the narrative, is intimate, evocative and moving’ Kristin Gleeson ? ‘I love the sophistication, directness and tenderness of this book’?Claire Dyer ? `The most satisfying book that I’ve read in a long time . masterful’?Sara Taylor `A moving and exquisite read’?Shelan Rodger
Binding: Paperback / softback