On one of the first days of summer, Tess receives a postcard. The picture on the postcard is of a petrol station outside of Åndalsnes where she and her brother Tony grew up. Norway had just discovered oil, her father Frank would come to make a fortune, her mother Lydia arrived from the USA and had never seen such mountains before. 30 years have passed since then. Now Tony has run away from rehab, and he is the one who sent her the postcard.

Tess travels to her home town to search for her brother. There she meets the mountain climber Andreas, who was Tony’s friend and ally at the rehab institution. The two experience a mutual attraction. Simultaneously, Tess is confronted with her family history: mother who left them in the end, father’s pipe dreams and extravagant plans. Tony has always had a need for protection and Tess is the one who has been there for him.

What if Tony is gone for good? Death is always the worst for those who are left behind, isn’t it? Sometimes relating to one’s own family can seem like the most difficult thing in the world.

Oil Rainbows is a keen-eyed and riveting novel about disappearance, risk, desire and wild, craggy Mountains.