She Is There All the Time
A young man runs across the street at the red light as he wants to arrive at a funeral on time. The girl behind him follows onto the crossing and is knocked down by a car. When the ambulance arrives, he disappears in a taxi. She Is There All the Time tells the story of…
A young man runs across the street at the red light as he wants to arrive at a funeral on time. The girl behind him follows onto the crossing and is knocked down by a car. When the ambulance arrives, he disappears in a taxi.
She Is There All the Time tells the story of an accident – Axel who needs to find the girl he has seen lying in a pool of blood and snow on the street. The novel is also a story of passion, lust and jealousy – of Axel and Maren, of how they meet and fall in love, and about how something else gradually forces its way between them. And finally, the novel deals with a suicide, with Axel’s friend Fredrik, whom nobody really paid attention to until it was too late.
Praise for She Is There All the Time:
“Don’t be fooled by the sober cover and the modest number of pages: Geir Nummedal’s debut will surprise you … It’s here, between romantic lightness and unpleasant gravitas that the novel really burns … Nummedal is an expert in describing people head over heels in love – and what happens when that feeling subsides and routine tiptoes in … feather light and bottomless at one and the same time. That’s quite a feat”
Dagsavisen
“excellent craft, sensuous writing, with lovely, clear images and a smoothly flowing prose … his talent lies in recreating emotions and the spirit of the times. The prose is sparse, and it succeeds in evoking the sensation of walking across a bathroom floor where somebody just stripped naked, or the feeling of slipping on the snow in your best shoes”
Bergens Tidende
“I caught myself thinking of Hamsun while I was reading [Nummedal has] Hamsun’s ability to say a lot with few words … The story is intense, intimate, it oozes intense passion and erotic joy … the main impression is that this novel is written by a true poet”
5/6 stars, Fædrelansvennen
“treats a wide specter of emotions. Loss, love, passion and guilt … The portrait of Maren is so well executed, that no image is needed to know what she looks like … I’m already looking forward to the next book.”
5/6 stars, Studvest
“the prose flows smoothly, is often poetic and sensual and switches efficiently between different moods. All in all this is a tight, carefully crafted debut novel with several dark holes and a purposefully open ending”
Stavanger Aftenblad
“She Is There All the Time makes a strong impression. The steady and precise prose and a great ability to create situations and moods contribute to that. It’s precisely this gaze which takes carries the novel forward and makes it into something more than a novel about a gang of students … the posing and the performing is left balancing between pornography and art”
NRK P2
“The subtle literary tricks where we jump back and forth within the chronology gradually becomes an expression of a mental state marked by forgetting, but the text flows so easily that there’s nothing arty about the novel.”
Klassekampen
“Everything is described in a nimble, light-minded prose which suits the novel well … a nicely shaped debut about desire, suspicion and grief over all those things you never saw or understood”
Dag og tid
“A light and breezy debut … Nummedal has a sharp eye and portrays transient moods of the moment with a decadent and melancholic beauty that suits the novel well”
Adresseavisen
“The book is packed with beautifully written scenes, and Maren’s powerful personality takes up large parts”
Universitas
“Geir Nummedal has written a book about love, death and [university life]. The combination works exceptionally well … emotionally you are thrown from one feeling to another. From the intoxication of a crush to deep sorrow and jealousy … The book is also very funny … anyone can enjoy it.”
Argument