As the author Lukas Hørslev walks across the floor of a posh café in an Oslo hotel, a woman addresses him with the words “I have read you”. Little does he know about the direction his life will take from there.

During a few summer months an affair with Ingrid Lieseth Aasen will turn the way he interprets his own life, his past and his previous love affairs on its head. Through the spectacles of infatuation, Lukas’ childhood and younger years is reexamined, especially the young Lukas’ first, hesitant travels abroad. His intense love for Ingrid also transforms his understanding of the other women in his life, like his previous girlfriend Alva Berg and his wife, Sofia Olivares, and the marital crisis he imagines himself to be caught up in.

A Map of the Realm of Tenderness is a novel of doomed love. It explores desire, seduction and the role lies and aesthetication play in our lives.