”Tove Nilsen’s latest novel is a sincere status report about being squeezed between teenage daughters, dead marriages, new love and the Kafkaesque experience of having to fight for one’s ill mother – against the very authorities who are supposed to help her. Melodramatic, intimate, trivial – and fabulous. Few can take life’s massive questions and fragment them into letters like Tove Nilsen can … Her secondary characters have been wisely placed in the novel, they have their own vim and pep … The text is intelligently wrought, yet possesses an immediacy often only found otherwise in autobiographical novels. Few women in similar situations will not be gripped by this book. Good literature is supposed to touch on and describe what is so normal that it is practically impossible to capture in words. Balancing intimacy and crass sentimentalism is difficult. Similiarly, one can cross the boundary from the vulnerable and universally human to the embarrassingly mundane. Of the realm in between, Nilsen is queen”
5/6 stars, VG
”A great and sensitive book about women’s lives … a multi-faceted book … The old, bejewelled mother, who would rather her daughter had become a crime writer, is splendid! This is the portrait of a women painted with love and respect – a well-crafted piece of literary work. Quite simply, Sommer 2005 is a cracking novel”
5/6 stars, Fædrelandsvennen
”An accessible novel which is realistic and well written, and Nilsen provides an inclusive and open portrayal of life at just over half-way, at the crossroads of life … Sommer 2005 says something important about life”
5/6 stars, Fredrikstads Blad
”A generous and honest novel … Particularly beautiful pictures are painted of the mother … the decisive scene with the old woman is unusually accurately and beautifully told”
Dagbladet
”Tove Nilsen writes about the storms whipped up by passionate love in her new novel Sommer 2005. But she also writes about loss and grief. This she does well. Reading Tove Nilsen’s new novel is a real kick … The portrayal of the old woman is generously and beautifully wrought … Tove Nilsen writes with great energy. Her writing, as is often the case in her books, is direct and natural. There is also room for reflection upon the great mysteries of life, like moments, art and the sacred”
NRK
”When at her very best, Tove Nilsen writes prose so powerful in its sensuality, in its wealth of detail and its restlessness that one may tend to think of Cora Sandel”
Klassekampen
”The portrayal of the strong, independent, 85-year old mother is impressive and vividly multi-dimensional … Tove Nilsen is a dependable, talented writer”
Aftenposten
”Tove Nilsen’s latest novel is a clement reminder of the mixed blessings of being in love … a warm, well written book, and often a wise book … Nilsen’s handicraft is professional and solid”
Dagens Næringsliv
”Practically on top form. A great novel about life, love and death … The novel has been written in fine, neutral prose … the portrayal of the relationship between the main character and her mother is particularly successful; this is beautiful, intimate literature and it is difficult not to be touched by it. The author at her very best”
Adresseavisen
”A good book thematically about loss and the opportunity for initimacy … One can identify with the way she expresses loneliness and the risk involved in submitting emotionally to another person … Describing the death scene has been solved simply and elegantly … Nilsen writes well about something we all have to relate to: death and loss, and the time in between which offers the chance for lasting intimacy”
Bergens Tidende
