“Incisive and funny, a sharp contemporary satire that cuts right through our illusions and the images we have of ourselves … an outstanding read with a huge potential for recognizing your own life”
Aftonbladet, Sweden (the four best books right now)
”Lykke’s doctor’s novel is, I dare say, a powerful, effective medicine for most things”
Femina, Sweden, 5/5 stars
“Lykke writes smart, precise, high-speed satire”
Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden
“[Natural Causes] is something as unusual as a doctor’s novel, and what could be more suitable in these times? Sure, there’s no virus spreading. But you will get refreshing, unsympathetic characters, a hopeful ending and above all an epidemic of sharp observations”
M-Magasin, Sweden
”This book has sharp prose, ultra-precise character portraits and beliveable dialogue”
Mariefreds Tidning, Sweden
“A satiric feast … addictive, entertaining, fast-paced … Nina Lykke is really funny … It’s a joy to read”
Information, Denmark
“A literary midlife crisis has rarely been described in such misanthropic and funny way”
Børsen, Denmark
“Lykke writes beautifully and funnily about the many challenges of privileged lives … The first half of [Natural Causes] is close to perfect … a tremendous novel that carves out a space for itself as an image of the crazy absurdity of existence”
Jyllands-Posten, Denmark
“Next, Please! [Natural Causes] is hysterically, laconically funny and hits the mark with surgical precision. I like everything about this novel. Its observations, its form, its measured tone, its joy of discovery, its crass claims and its unreasonable (and highly true-to-life) dialogues … Above all, it’s unbelievable how Lykke sees all this, all this foolishness and pettiness, all this pretense, and still manages to keep her empathy. She sees through people, without ripping them apart, exposes them without contemptuous ridicule. Thank you so much, Nina Lykke.”
Borås Tidning, Sweden
“The middle aged general practitioner Elin drowns her ennui with white wine and tv series while her husband is racing around on his skis in the forest. Then her boyfriend from her younger years turns up and causes chaos … An ingeniou modern infidelity novel with refreshingly black humour. It will make you laugh out loud!”
Bonnier Book Club Book of the year, Nomination jury’s statement), Sweden
“It’s been years since a book made me laugh so desperately long and hard as Lykke’s Brage Prize winning doctor’s novel Natural Causes. It tells the story of a frustrated GP, Elin, who leaves her husband after having been unfaithful herself, and who settles down in her doctor’s office. She ruminates about her sorry marriage, and comes with biting characteristics of her patients, who come running to her with every little problem”
Cathrine Krøger, Dagbladet, Books of the year 2019
“Lykke has one of the funniest pens in contemporary Norwegian literature. Here she turns all the conventions of the doctor’s romance on their head, and offers juicy diagnoses of the miserable state of modern city dwellers. Deadly satire!”
Inger Bentzrud, Dagbladet, Books of the year 2019
“Lykke’s witty misanthropy and contempt for our times is so powerful that I feel compelled to moral indignation, but no, I enjoy it far too much.”
Bjørn Ivar Fyksen, Klassekampen, Books of the year 2019
“Oh, how wonderful it is to laugh at others – until you realize that this “other” is indistinguishable from yourself … Nina Lykke’s great feat is that she makes you want to continue reading regardless … Smart and sharp and funny, but with enough warmth at its core for it not to come across as nasty. Only good. That’s the way we are, but we’re doing our best, Lykke says, and that’s not a bad message for Christmas.”
Gerd Elin Stava Sandve, Dagsavisen , Books of the year 2019
“Super reviews and a Brage Prize – Nina Lykke’s new book must go on the list. Nobody can describe the white middle class’ unbearable lightness, in a funnier way than Lykke. After her success with No a Hundred Times No in 2016, Nina Lykke got many new fans. They will not be disappointed”
Trine Saugestad Hatlen, VG, Books of the year 2019
“Nina Lykke won Norway’s most well-known literary prize, the Brage Prize, for this satirical barnburner of a novel … With great success, Lykke has made caustic pessimism her trademark. Her books are full of people who can no longer see any meaning in conventions and the white lies supposed to work as social lubricants.”
Aftenposten, Books of the year 2019
“Nina Lykke has a razor sharp eye for contemporary currents. With great success [she] has made caustically articulated pessimism her trademark. Her books are full of people who no longer find any meaning in conventions and pretence, in all the white lies that are supposed to work as social lubricant. But Lykke is also one of Norwegian literature’s most gifted satirists … As if she were a modern Jane Austen, Nina Lykke has a wonderful ability to see through and ironically analyse typically human follies. Who can resist such a thing?”
Aftenposten
“A sharp, perceptive and very entertaining novel about the general practitioner Elin’s infidelity and the distressing events that follow … incredibly funny … Lykke’s prose is unusually fresh, without filter, smoothly sliding between past and present. Her diagnosis of our time is x-ray sharp and sensitive … It’s a wonderful read, but is there nothing to complain about? Yes, that the novel could have been longer than its 288 pages!”
6/6 stars, Adresseavisen
“Nina Lykke’s novel of infidelity should be prescribed by doctors. A razor-sharp, entertaining book about the forbidden … one of our sharpest observers of marriage and relationships … This year’s book goes straight to the core, and it’s her best so far, because it is her bravest: She dares to dig around in the dirt, to the point where the reader feels it in her stomach, either as laughter bubbling up from deep down or as a lump of discomfort … With pitch-black humor and a good dose of empathy, she describes all the unfathomable things we keep doing as we try to find balance. Everybody who has lived for a while, or had a relationship with another person, will find sentences to underline here”
Dagens Næringsliv
“Nina Lykke’s novel shows how badly things can go when we don’t appreciate what we have while we have it … Towards the end of the novel, we get a little story inside the story about Elin and her mother … The portrait of her anchors Elin as a character. She becomes a living person, not just a type, as so often happens in satiric books … The satire is sharp and caustic, both novels are chillingly joyous reads. With a confident hand around both storytelling and prose, the author shows us the foolishness of our age”
Dag og Tid
“Succeeds even better! Few are more successful when it comes to making fun of us spoilt Norwegians than Nina Lykke … In Natural Causes there’s simply room for more social satire, which Lykke is so good at. It’s embarrassing and recognizable, funny and dark. Nobody can portray the white middle class’ unbearable lightness in a funnier way than Nina Lykke. After her success with No, a Hundred Times No in 2016, Nina Lykke got many new fans. They will not be disappointed.”
VG
“The narrator’s charmingly dark world view is in any case enough to carry this novel. It’s not only the patient types in the doctor’s office that give me a feeling of being exposed: The novel is packed with petty narrowmindedness, unsympathetic habits and unpleasant character traits, which you, with delight and terror, recognize in yourself and others. Half as much would have been enough. But all of it is what gives Natural Causes its full punch, its full power.”
Klassekampen
“Nina Lykke writes with an outstanding mix of familiarity and humor. In this, she can be reminiscent of both Vigdis Hjorth and Agnes Ravatn, who also know how to juggle descriptions of crises with distanced observations – occasionally. Again, reading Lykke is pure joy”
Dagbladet
“Nina Lykke has unique observational skills and a wonderful, ironic outlook on life. In Natural Causes she follows up the sharp, dark contemporary satire we know from No, a Hundred Times No, giving us a doctor’s novel outside of the ordinary. Elin is a general practitioner. She is in her mid-fifties. And she is discouraged. More and more often she loses her patience with tiresome, demanding patients. Her husband Aksel is only interested in skiing and running. Her job, her marriage and her life in the rowhouse area Grenda, which used to be so pleasant, has lost its charm. Elin is bored and dulls her discontent with too much wine and endless soap series on TV. But then one evening, she happens to stumble upon her boyfriend from her youth, Bjørn, on Facebook, and suddenly wine has been replaced with infidelity and new excitement. As the novel starts, Elin has escaped both her lover, her husband and her rowhouse – and moved into her doctor’s office. And it’s a mix her self-searching observations and general disillusion with everything and everyone which carry this story.
Natural Causes contains fierce observations of people who try to keep going. At the same time, the novel is a sharp, good-natured commentary on a society where wealth and abundance has made us demanding and torpid. Each of us now demands to live a life of eternal youth, good health and happiness. Lykke keeps a fine balance between stereotypical exaggeration and uncomfortable, embarrassing recognition. The character portraits are solid. The prose is sharp and precise. It’s merciless and revealing. Quite simply a delightful read!”
Brage Prize Nomination, jury statement
