“Absolutely beautiful! Mjønes is an exciting author who has published several acclaimed books, but with Spuria, he should achieve a major breakthrough. This time, he has written about children born out of wedlock, adoption, and secrecy. And it is done with great sensitivity and empathy. (…) Mjønes’ humanistic approach to the characters in this fine novel stands out. Spuria is a well-written and important story about domestic adoption and the stigmatization of mothers and children as illegitimate.”
6/6 stars, Guri Hjeltnes, VG
“A beautiful novel about old age and longing. Powerful and moving about an elderly woman who wants to find the son she gave up for adoption when she was 16 years old. Spuria is yet another strong novel from Johan B. Mjønes, and a story that feels necessary in our time where most things are told in capital letters. A story about something as simple, complicated, and human as grief, longing, and love.”
5/6 stars, Ørjan Greiff Johnsen, Adresseavisen
“Mjønes has written a moving adoption novel with warmth and technical skill … In his sober way, the author makes it clear what costs women have had to pay … Spuria is a display of elegant transitions between present and past, present and past tense … a sensitive, eye-opening story about shame and grief and the madness of the past”
Anne Merethe K. Prinos, Aftenposten
“a moving story … The portrait of both the teenage girl and the ageing Kristin is beautiful and nuanced. … In Spuria he (Mjønes) succeeds in building a very believable 20th century female character. Both main characters are drawn with psychological credibility and with fine, characterizing details. … Spuria is both a vulnerable and beautiful book. It is the core story of adoption that holds the reader captive … Mjønes’ story brings out the lifelong wound such experiences could cause and the novel feels painfully believable … In Spuria, Mjønes has a steady hand with this heartbreaking material, and he brings it all to a close with an absolutely perfect ending.”
Janneken Øverland, Klassekampen
“Painful about the loss of a child. A penetrating cultural history of how lies and secrecy have consequences for an entire life … Mjønes tells a gripping story … Mjønes’ method is steady and convincing: Starting from the present, he allows concrete objects or events, such as a cloth, a wall clock or a fall, to throw Kristin back to her youth. The memories come and go, almost in a single sentence, in the same way that Jon Fosse can operate with time and shifts in consciousness in his books. … Johan Mjønes is tactile and sensitive in his presentation of Kristin’s memories. For a third-person narrative, we get right under the skin of the ageing protagonist … The ending should not be revealed. But it is touching.”
5/6 stars, Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK
“Johan B. Mjønes paints a moving portrait of a woman who finally dares to let go of the shame of the past … in Mjønes’ sure hands it becomes literary magic … The emotional power of the story, the precise prose and the sharp observations make this one of the most rewarding reads I’ve had this year (admittedly it’s January). Mjønes has written a novel that doesn’t just grab you; it refuses to let go.”
5/6 stars, Torstein Hoset, Stavanger Aftenblad
