“With one finger in the wound … This story of the creeping disintegration of a family is told with furious wit … In Nina Lykke’s family drama, not one stone is left on the other. This is carried out in an extremely thorough way, even though nothing really terrible happens during the course of these 270 pages. It is the nasty wit, the pitch darkness, that sets this story apart from thousands of others of its kind … No, A Hundred Times No is no soothing, friendly women’s novel. It is a magnificent book for anybody who can accept that literature can also be painful. Keyword: Mirror.”
Freie Presse, Germany
“[A] wonderfully sharp novel … All in all this drama of a midlife crisis is a very enjoyable read, and Nina Lykke is a sharp, merciless observer … [a] lucid, darkly humorous novel.”
Der Spiegel, Germany
“A young woman puts a solid marriage in disarray: In No, a Hundred Times No [Nina Lykke] follows an old material in a new and shrewd way to its conclusion … Without question, this is a book that should be read. Because it is neither a bill of indictment, nor a tearful women’s novel. No, in this literary, highly exciting dilemma of life and love, all three protagonists run into trouble, and when we get to the end it’s unclear which of them can lay claim to a happy ending … Lykke takes her characters sternly (and sometimes with wonderful viciousness), but still treats them with great kindness.”
Donna, Germany
“A very enjoyable novel. Although Ingrid’s thoughts are negative, they are poignant expressions of razor sharp perceptiveness, and also often highly amusing. Lykke’s book is a philippic for baby boomers, paradoxically as rebellious as it is consoling.”
Deutschlandfunk. Germany
«What is the meaning of it all? That seems to be the basic question of Nina Lykke’s very funny and dark novel, which – not without warmth – portrays the privileged middle class’ sometimes foolish search for leave, self realization and neurotic fixation on how to fit on”
Gefle Dagblad, Sweden
«With humour and sharpness, Nina Lykke takes on the modern western person’s ennui and anguish about having it all, but still wanting more”
Smålandsposten (Best Books Right Now)
“No, a Hundred Times No takes is a satire of the dramatic arc of middle class lives, a contemporary comedy of the generation that got everything, but forgot to be grateful about it. Lykke writes with a caustic humour that constantly balances on the verge of the overstated, without ever falling over. It’s elegantly done, and enormously fun to read”
Sydsvenskan, Sweden
“Lykke is in this way drastic, incisive and sharp, but not really at the expense of her characters. Instead she aims to capture the destructive life forms we can get tangled up in … It’s a brilliant book, and the fact that such books are written does bring us a certain hope … uniquely entertaining”
Dala-Demokraten, Sweden
“Nina Lykke writes funny, her observations are sharp and entertaining”
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
“Humour, warmth and an unfailing feeling for significant details … could have been a really unpleasant read, if it weren’t for Lykke’s breakneck, biting humour and her warmly forgiving eye for her characters’ shortcomings. Now the reader can instead laugh at the tragicomic twists in this divorce drama. Paradoxically, it makes the underlying gravity of the story stay with the reader for a long time after the book is finished”
Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden
“A razor sharp, brilliant, thought-provoking novel”
Kristiansandsbladet, Sweden
“Oh, it’s been so long since I read something as wonderfully sharp as Nina Lykke’s No, a Hundred Times No … Lykke has such a precise eye for what makes Ingrid, Jan and Hanne do the things they do, cheekily massacring the experienced privileges of the middle class … I laugh hysterically and squirm in embarrassment at the same time … Lykke doesn’t fall into the trap of making caricatures of Ingrid, Jan and Hanne. No, she describes them as real persons”
Borås Tidning, Sweden
“A very interesting story, which with its many questions and moral dilemmas is perfectly suited for a book circle discussion. I will carry this story with me for a long time, it leaves a very strong impression”
Johannas deckarhörna, Sweden (blog)
”With humour and a razor sharp eye for universal problems, Lykke tears into the well-organized middle-class life, and I can only join the choir of people who have hailed this book and encourage everybody to read!”
Och dagarna går, Sweden (blog)
”I enjoyed No, a Hundred Times No immensely, and I’m happy it has been nominated for the Book of the Year award, since it’s very well deserved.”
Stories from the City, Sweden (blog)
”One of the best books I have read in this genre. It’s story is very recognizable”
Just nu – Just här, Sweden (blog)
”No, a Hundred Times No is so well-crafted and incredibly precise and powerful. It’s not difficult to understand why it’s chosen as one of the twelve nominees for Book of the Year 2018 … I think many, if not everybody, can see their own lives mirrored in this story, whether they have experienced something similar directly or indirectly. There are so many emotions and thoughts that Lykke gives words to that it makes me speechless. It’s so well done that I can’t understand how she does it”
Villa Freja, Sweden (blog)
“A razor-sharp, deeply probing, uncomfortable love triangle story that reads like a pageturner (…) creeps under the reader’s skin with its energetic, realistic prose, which at times tremble with violent emotion”
Adresseavisen
“Ibsenesque (…) incredibly precise in her portrayal of a certain form of life (…) A kind of Dag Solstad for the 2010s, satiric, recognizable and fun.”
Kulturhuset, NRK P2
“A rip-roaringly funny, painfully accurate story of the indiscreet charm – and anxiety – of the middle class … The estranged frustration of the privileged upper middle class is not a new theme in Norwegian fiction. But we have rarely been offered funnier or more precise descriptions of the oppressive pressure of expectations than here … Exaggerating just enough is an art. Enough to make your point, but without becoming irrelevant. Nina Lykke masters that art … The book is well written and entertaining and draws a convincing portrait of ‘the discontent of great expectations’. Sequel, please.”
Dagsavisen
“It’s all so painfully familiar … The author has an incredible understanding of the rise and fall of love. She also has a fantastic ability to create great entertainment of a midlife crisis, without losing sight of the tragic dimension … It would have been so simple to make fun of the involved in this little drama. And Nina Lykke really exposes them to the reader’s roaring laughter. At the same time she succeeds in presenting this marriage disaster with so much love and empathy for the involved that it’s painful to read … Jenny Offill is the new shooting star of the literary world. Nina Lykke gives her a run for her money”
Dag og Tid
“A raw, well-written story of fighting for a certain life – for Ingrid, her husband and the younger woman, he has fallen in love with … In glimpses our contemporary affluence and decadence seem to be the targets of this novel … But even more powerful are the scenes from a dissolving marriage, when more timeless matters like love, betrayal and desire for freedom take center stage. That the story ends all too soon, I choose to interpret as a promising hint that we might meet Ingrid again in a later novel”
Morgenbladet
“Now she is here, the female counterpart to Dag Solstad’s gymnasium teacher Elias Rukla. Her name is Ingrid and she is practically climbing the walls of her house in the Oslo’s best east end … Nina Lykke’s writing is fast, precise and recognizable. Her desperation seems heartfelt. She might be the sharpest satirist in Norwegian literature today.”
NRK P2
“Nina Lykke delivers a merciless satire of our lives. Wealth has grabbed us by the throat in Nina Lykke’s novel. And she squeezes a little extra where it hurts … it’s a situation that screams for satire, and Lykke delivers. But her ambition goes beyond friendly humour. She is merciless in her descriptions of the new narcissism, our self-possessed existence where we pose for each other, either through Facebook or in our real lives”
Aftenposten
