“a tremendously good father-son story with moral and weight”
(NRK)

“The plot in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, played out in the Norwegian welfare society … Refsum’s novel raises itself above most other in the same genre … The portrayal of how a lonely, anxious man can be ridiculed when too much food and drink has been consumed, is fantastic. The emotions are so infectious that reader hardly dares show his face in public for a long time”
(Dagens Næringsliv)

“It would be an advantage for everyone if this book were to become one of the stars of the autumn … The fact that this book does not claim beauty, makes it even lovelier. The result is ordinary, through and through, containing even a core of dullness. But without this core, Promise would not have reached its extraordinary weight and trustworthiness – or the unassuming truth which lies in the portrayal of the two people, the father and the son, who try to commit themselves to one another, without always knowing it”
(Dagbladet)

”Refsum has yet again told us something essential about human relationships”
(Dagsavisen)

“a refreshing read.”
(Klassekampen)

”Thought-provoking about a family in crisis trying to get a life… the author shows great moral gravity and nicely portrays the tension between sorrow and happiness, insecurity and aggression, loneliness and yearning for love in the life of the two main characters.”
(Stavanger Aftenblad)