”Difficult but successful. In Drinking the Water the Worms Had Been Lying In loss and suicide are portrayed in a poetic but also macabre style … although the reader is drawn into the main character’s string of thoughts, the author manages to make her voice heard thanks to her solid, deft writing … After one reading, you should read it again, not because it was a pleasant experience, but because the text flourishes the second time. Ribe’s text is full of symbolism which one needs time to absorb. If you are well rested, the book offers a unique and well-crafted encounter with Norwegian literature”
Universitas
”Again Ribe writes captivatingly and not least very poetically … The reader glimpses the story via the main character’s inner life. The prose in Drinking the Water the Worms Had Been Lying In is incredibly beautiful. The action is often unclear, because one cannot separate dreams from reality, but the language in this book can absolutely be recommended”
Fredrikstads Blad
”Kristin Ribe’s first novel Slips of the Tongue introduced a unique voice to Norwegian contemporary literature. This voice continues in her second novel, but the themes make this much more difficult reading. Difficult in the sense that this is about one of the most taboo and intensely incomprehensible events we can experience: suicide … The novel tries express why one chooses life. It does not look for explanations or analyze why, but tells of an experience of life which is modern and important. Kristin Ribe is without a doubt not just a good writer, she is an important one”
Adresseavisen
“A dark novel which looks at issues surrounding suicide … This is also an exciting novel from the point of view of form and language. As an author, Kristin Ribe has been inspired by the French nouveau roman and the modernists’ stream-of-consiousness. The structure of the story and language aim to express credibly the internal, not the external. Read it if you want a book whose form and content challenge you as a reader”
Radio Nova
”The work of a most conscientious writer … Ribe’s stylistic sensitivity is unique. As is her earnestness”
