“A moving novel of several generations in an artists’ family, where the doors are open, suppression is rife and the echoes of old family traumas are deafening. A captivating story about growing up in surroundings marked by absence and instability, and one of the best Norwegian novels this year.”
Maya Troberg Djuve, Dagbladet, Books of the year 2019
“A captivating novel about an anxiety-ridden artists’ family … a heartbreaking and convincing story of longing and inherited traumas … The way the novel shifts from one life story to another, from one time and place to another makes it a dynamic and captivating read … Everything is conveyed in prose that flows seamlessly and with great energy. A Child Forever is a painful story of betrayal, bottomless fear and an absence that is everywhere. A well-composed, absorbing and truly gripping novel.”
Dagbladet
“Maria Sand’s second novel is a cleverly composed generational portrait where disaster constantly threatens from below the surface … intense and convincing … What distinguishes A Child Forever is first of all the way the book is composed. The text appears like a distinctly anchored monologue – a single voice speaking in a colloquial, almost spatial way … The switches between times and places metaphorically show how the scars of a family grow and shrink in an almost organic way, despite, or perhaps because of, the attempts to protect each other. The writing is light and explorative, but Sand is not afraid to address painful issues.”
Klassekampen
“A Child Forever deals with four generations of vulnerability … The tragedies aren’t overwhelming compared to what other families experience, and they are portrayed lightly and interjected in between drowsy, poetic depictions of everyday-life. A Child Forever is not a tear jerker, but a meditation on the vulnerability of life … By not telling the family story chronologically, the reader meets child characters who we know how will end up, knowledge they obviously do not have themselves. In this way everybody becomes both a child and an adult at the same time.”
Dagens Næringsliv
“A Child Forever is a solid, beautiful novel about generations that are linked together … In a gorgeous opening we are transported all the way back to 1925, where we meet Agnes, Mi’s great-grandmother … Maria Sand sews the stories of the women together in an inventive way … It’s very elegantly done … above all, I am left with the feeling that this was an extraordinarily good read … a rich and deeply felt novel which is also well-crafted in prose and composition”
Dag og Tid
“A captivating novel about anxiety and responsibility. About inheriting anxiety and at the same time taking care of the mothers to protect them from anxiety – through five generations. Written with an unusual ability to convey emotions that are hard to articulate”
5/6 Adresseavisen
