“Emily Forever makes room for a person who isn’t usually enclosed by language and literature. What makes it so magnificent is that Maria Navarro Skaranger refrains from making Emily into a representative for this or that […] When I read the novel for the third time, I realise that I have to let go, but also that the ice-cold times we live in produce a desire for living literature. Emily. Look at her and think for yourself.”
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
“What makes Emily Forever into something absolutely out of the ordinary is the way that the omniscient narrator wanders in and out of the characters, rendering their thoughts and experiences, unwaveringly solidaric and questioning at the same time. How is it possible? It is […] It actually feels like Navarro Skaranger has invented a new and irresistible way of portraying people.”
Aftonbladet, Sweden
“Skaranger shows the control she has over her craft. With apparent simplicity she brings us under the skin of the novel’s characters, at the same time precisely pointing out how poverty isn’t about material things, not exclusively […] In her third novel, there are glimpses of the same brutal humour [as in her debut novel], but the tone is more serious and between the lines you sense a tender, trembling indigniation, which also spreads to the reader, coalescing into a knot in her stomach.”
Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden
“Skaranger writes about pregnancy, motherhood and often unheard people’s inner lives in a way that feels unique and pioneering […] Everybody wants to tells stories about class these days, but it’s rarely done in such an unpretentious way: A group of parents where the other mothers talk about books, a friend from the shopping centre who hangs her jacket on a chair instead of cramming it into the pram, a bathroom with numerous boxes where you can put jewelry. The perspective shifts from one character to the other, always seamlessly. I don’t understand how Navarro Skaranger does it, how the author herself can reach into Em’s existence and speak directly to the reader, but she does, and it’s completely natural and very elegant. A moving, laconic little novel which seems to say more than what the words contain.”
Borås Tidning, Sweden
“Skaranger writes her way around and into young Emily and gives the reader room to reflect.”
Eivind Myklebust, Klassekampen, Best Books of 2021
“In Emily Forever we don’t really get to know Emily, but we get to know other people’s gaze on a person such as Emily. This in an incredibly smart narrative device”
Bjørn Ivar Fyksen, Klassekampen, Best Books of 2021
“There are many reasons why Emily Forever is a fantastic book. To me the narrative voice is the most important. Through this, Maria Navarro Skaranger approaches her main character, a poor, 19-year-old girl who is about to become a single mother, with a peculiar mix of closeness and distance – and wonder, tenderness and subtle humour.”
Ulla Svalheim, Vårt Land, Best Books of 2021
“I have read many novels about class, class journeys and social inequality the past year. Many of them have been good, but none have woven together the structural and the individual, the political and the existential as elegantly as Maria Navarro Skaranger does in Emily Forever … A gorgeous book!
Ingeborg Misje Bergem, Vårt Land, Best Books of 2021
“This might very well be how the world how is for “the girl at the check-out counter at the supermarket”, who parents use to scare their children with when they refuse to do their homework. Skaranger portrays such a woman for better or worse. She hopes with her, struggles with her, breathes with her. It is deeply moving.”
Marianne Lystrup, Vårt Land, Best Books of 2021
“Maria Navarro Skaranger’s books are people with beautiful, fallible people who are portrayed with honesty and love. Emily – 19 years old and about to become a mother – is no exception. The Oslo writer’s effortless, but very vivid prose suits this book about growing up faster than you might want to.”
Elias Bakken Johansen, Vårt Land, Best Books of 2021
“She deserves the Brage Prize … Maria Navarro Skaranger writes with wisdom and heart about the anybodies in society in a brilliant novel … If there’s any justice in the world, awards will shower over her third book, Emily Forever, too, since this is definitely her best – so far … Skaranger is a glowing literary talent, and part of what makes this novel so rich is its inquiring, critical, observing narrative voice … Skaranger really blows life into these twisted souls, both through Emily’s observations of them – and through their observations of Emily. Elegant!”
Ellen Sofie Lauritzen, Dagens Næringsliv
“A powerful, sharply written novel about finding value in the life you have … It is the sum of the theme, the social class of the characters and Skaranger’s quite distinct, personal narrative voice that makes her books and this novel in particular unique … It’s far from a thick volume, but it will probably end up as one of this autumn’s most looming titles”
6/6 stars, Ole Jacob Hoel, Adresseavisen
“Maria Navarro Skaranger has written a profoundly beautiful book about a rudderless existence that seems genetically conditioned … A novel about class such as this one brings your thoughts back in time to the hopelessness of Amalie Skram’s naturalistic stories of inherited poverty. But Maria Navarro Skaranger’s warm prose and deeply felt sympathy with Emily glows throughout the novel”
5/6 stars, Inger Bentzrud, Dagbladet
“In beautiful, intuitive prose, Maria Navarro Skaranger shows how class contempt is expressed in Norway … a fantastic book … the prose is so intuitive and beautiful”
Ingeborg Misje Bergem, Vårt Land
“Skaranger’s third novel hits the mark. Emily Forever is a novel about a young soul in a terrifying situation, written with integrity and a distinctive approach … In spite of [Emily’s] situation, this is not a depressing novel. This is in part due to the presence of a distinctive omniscient narrator, who is a bit out of the ordinary. The narrator feels her way forward, is spontaneous, wondering, shifting, subtly ironic, guessing, but still effortlessly poetic. Like a pleasant stream of remembrance. This makes us experience Emily with a certain ironic distance, but empathy and care for her still seep out between the lines … Skaranger draws up young characters in beautiful/ugly landscapes on Oslo’s east end with distinctive literary strokes and with an impressive lightness and authenticity.”
Shana Fevang Mathai, NRK
“Again, it’s Skaranger’s distinctive literary sense that makes the book shine … The author portrays pregnancy, birth and postnatal period with her very own vitality, irony and poetry … The novel can absolutely be read as a book about class, a perspective which one can also find in Skaranger’s previous two books. The author’s alertness to the material details of class differences is perhaps at its highest in this year’s novel, and it is accompanied by a finely tuned depiction of caregiving … With literary authority and subtle hints to authors worth measuring yourself against, Maria Navarro Skaranger has succeeded in writing a tight, short novel rich in themes and motives and with clear literary and aesthetic qualities. In this way she assumes her place among the truly good ones with confidence and great naturalness”
Margunn Vikingstad, Morgenbladet
“In a novel distinguished by intelligence and nuanced prose, Maria Navarro Skaranger follows her confused main character into a new life phase … Her body of work spreads a peculiar, beautiful energy”
Tom Egil Hverven, Klassekampen
