“Film director Dag Johan Haugerud writes excellent books … Just like his films, Pastoral Care—as the book is titled—stages conversations between people that go on and on until the ordinary details of everyday life open up and reveal unexpected depths.”
Lasse Winther Jensen, Weekendavisen, Denmark
“Dag Johan Haugerud’s short novel Pastoral Care makes a big impression … Haugerud’s dramatic techniques are unusually understated; no interjections are allowed to intrude. Only subdued devices. Almost like in Herman Bang’s work”
Isabella Miehe-Renard, POV International, Denmark
“A subdued, slow-paced, and thoughtful novel… A very quiet novel, yet one in which you never know what will happen around the next corner.”
Nils Gunder Hansen, Kristeligt Dagblad
“Star film director Dag Johan Haugerud has written a novel that, in a humorous and insightful way, compels the reader and its characters to take their lives and joy completely seriously.”
Johann Sten Nielsen, Information
“Sober writing about language and desire … Dag Johan Haugerud’s greatness lies in his dialogues … The everyday is the underlying tone in Haugerud’s artistry, that and the interplay between people, both what is said and what takes place through glances and gestures”
5/6 stars
Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK
“It is stimulating reading. Few have this ability to turn around and switch effortlessly between the empathetic and the analytical… In a relaxed but meaningful prose, Haugerud paints a poignant portrait of loneliness, of the fear of letting your guard down, of the basic conditions of human existence … a quiet powerhouse of a novel that leaves the reader full of wonder, excitement and engagement.”
Anne Merethe K. Prinos, Aftenposten
“Like his films, Pastoral Care is lifted by good, responsive dialogue … The inner monologues are at least as good as the dialogues here. The narrator Thomas is a joy to follow through work, leisure and on his journey through selected parts of Oslo … a soul-saving novel.‘
5/6 stars
Terje Eidsvåg, Adresseavisen
“… a reminder that good books do not have to be extensive descriptions of something that happened long ago in distant places, but can be about something that seems very close to many of us: for example, everyday conversations and the inner life of a queer deacon in St. Paul’s Church … the acclaimed filmmaker Haugerud is a first-class fiction writer.”
Rolv Nøtvik Jacobsen, Vårt Land
“It is somewhat incredible that Dag Johan Haugerud’s name is not as widely known in the class of Norwegian cultural luminaries as Karl Ove Knausgård, Jon Fosse or Joachim Trier … an extremely finely tuned observer … It is difficult not to take Dag Johan Haugerud’s message very seriously. It stays with you for a long time, grinding away, as only significant literature does.”
5/6 stars
Inger Bentzrud, Dagbladet
