Vente, blinke

Wait, Blink is a novel with several stories. We meet Sigrid, a rather timid young literature student, and witness her soulconsuming encounter with the author Kåre, the movie director Linnea (who is going location hunting in Copenhagen), the performance artist Trine (whose breasts are bursting with milk), and, last but not least, Viggo, also a literature student, who longs to belong to someone or something. Elida, a fisherman´s daughter, Robert, a film producer, and Göran, a literature professor, also play their roles in this group of shivering and at times desperate characters.

Gunnhild Øyehaug´s novel is both wide-ranging and complex. She is a playful and frisky writer, and Wait, Blink is both humorous and profound. It is a novel about desire and dreams, women and men, love and what it means to dare to be yourself.

Long-listed for The National Book Award in Translated Literature 2018

FOREIGN SALES: DENMARK, THE NETHERLANDS, GERMANY, POLAND, SWEDEN, USA

"If it isn’t precisely perfect, it’s awfully damn close." Kirkus Reviews, USA

"[…] both marvelous and mundane. The book is wonderfully funny and strange […]." pasatiempo

"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's easy to lose your breath, but that's the way it is in WAIT, BLINK,where all kinds of threads, associations, quotations, accidents, meta-literary points and - especially - peculiar details, gather up to one great talking, thinking, original and unreasonably funny and self-ironic novel."

Weekendavisen, Denmark

"These poor Norwegian fumble about in a both entertaining and strained way in Gunnhild Øyehaug's technically clever first novel. But beneath all the fumbling, there is a feminist call to arms".

Politiken, Denmark

"The Norwegian writer Gunnhild Øyehaug has written a book which is deliciously prepared and served by a well-writing pen."

Berlingske Tidende, Denmark

"WAIT, BLINK is a perfect novel for our time."

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden

"Gunnhild Øyehaug has written a 'literary' novel. In contrast to many others, she succeeds in making it both ambitious and entertaining."

Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden

"WAIT, BLINK is an ambitious project, which takes the well-worn archetypical story of how and when to stand up, allow yourself to love and be loved, to a new level. The seemingly incompatible mix of indolent attempts at socialisation in Scandinavian life and the giants of cultural history that Øyehaug carries out throughout the book, is both amusing and fascinating."

Smålandsposten, Sweden

"This is a richly rewarded, fully grown and hyperconsciously, comically dense and heartbreakingly sad slice of a few Norwegian 'young adults' dismal struggle to make their social lives work."

Sydsvenskan, Sweden

"My God, what a book. Inventive and lively, both in prose and content. This might the best Norwegian book this year."

Aftenposten

"Brilliant and well-crafted. An impressive, powerful and amusing first novel!"

Bergens Tidende

"Is this 'a perfect image of an inner life' as the subtitle claims? Questions like this make it fun to read. How about all the other literary names here? They are so absurdly arranged, that anyone can wonder - or not. This makes WAIT, BLINK an exclusive novel which welcomes everybody in. A perfect combination."

NRK P2

"An unusually ambitious novel"

Klassekampen

"With hilarious poignancy, she laces in all of the little pieces of the world that by design or, more often, by coincidence, factor into the women’s stories. The result is that this novel, though revolving around the stories of three women, feels like a story about the whole, hard, ridiculous world. Øyehaug weaves her characters and their world together into a novel that feels as much like a real picture of inner life as it does an author’s beautiful game." THE PARIS REVIEW

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