”Newcomer Ingrid Z. Aanestad has written a sweet and sensitive little book about Maria, a young girl wandering alone around the big, cold city that she has just moved to. Not much happens, yet beautiful pictures and observations draw the reader into Maria’s little life. Perfect reading with a nice cup of tea on a cold evening at home!”
Dagsavisen
”Good insight … Through her writing which captures the smallest, seemingly insignificant experiences, we become acquainted with the main character’s brooding self… Maybe it is because I am young, sad on occasions, and eat tomato soup that I can identify so utterly with Maria? Perhaps it was identifying with her that drove me to read the book in one go? … It may be selfish of me to say that I like I dag er ein fin dag, but nonetheless I do”
Universitas
”Beautifully crafted language with detailed depictions which capture the right details; eating breakfast in bed, having few dishes to wash up, worrying about appearances when visitors turn up, make this an impressive debut. What do they say in the Reprise reviews; a loving, but self-critical look at one’s own generation? This book is just that; a compact and revealing photo of student life, as indeed it is for many, many people”
Spirit, 5 out of 6 stars
”It may be challenging, but reading short, accurate, evocative novels in Norwegian is also rewarding. Challenging because it takes time to appreciate the sentences which convey the atmosphere. Rewarding because the language has often been carefully crafted. Ingrid Z. Aanestad’s debut is an atmospheric novel of this kind … The red thread is Maria’s experiences and observations as told by an anonymous narrator in a peculiar mixture of distraction and concrete, sensual insight. In one of the many well-written scenes, the main character loses concentration while trying to read a book … The sentences are economical and there is no trickery other than the conscious repetition of the text’s main thematic elements”
Dagsavisen
“Impressive … It is the mood and intensity that is the drive of the book, and definitely not a spectacular intrigue. The low key style, however, makes the small, unforeseen things that happen seem enormously strong and dramatic. When Maria passes a man that exposes himself, one is as shaken as if one had read about a rape in another novel”
Natt og Dag
“Ingrid Z. Aanestad achieve a very balanced prose, very muffled and concentrated. She has a good sense for details”
Aftenposten
