“Reading The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life leaves the reader with a strong feeling of pleasure. This is obviously due to Christiansen’s exquisite writing, a distinct style which the author has already proved is among the best we have, through novels, poetry books and novels again … the author’s confident descriptions of her in her work, also gives the reader a strong feeling of pleasure … there is unusally little that clutters the story. In this way the book contributes in expanding my view of what good literature can be … Reading about Lydia’s sense of desire inspires in me the belief that hopefulness can have its place in contemporary literature”
Morgenbladet

“Rune Christiansen has written one of his best novels. The grows while you read it … You could claim that more perfect prose than Rune Christiansen’s new novel can hardly be found anywhere in Norwegian literature. And it wouldn’t be wrong. This is an enchanting book on loneliness and love, where practically every sentence can be savoured … Both its poetic chapter titles and the novel’s prologue creates strange moods, a sort of hovering effect … a writer who masters literary writing on the very highest Level”
Klassekampen

«There is nothing flashy or loudly spectacular about Rune Christiansen’s eighth novel, nothing which is dramatic, upsetting or uncomfortable. The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life is instead a luminous example of a book which quietly lifts the reader, an artful, but unpretentious book, written with an almost pageturnerish ease”
Aftenposten

“An unusually beautiful novel. Christiansen’s writing differs sfrom most Norwegian writers these days. His latest novel is a step up for a writer who already has an original and brilliant oeuvre behind him, where the perception of time is a recurrent theme. Few Norwegian writers write more beautiful sentences than Rune Christiansen … Of course, good literature is about more than beautiful sentences. But there can be no doubt that Rune Christiansen writes exquisite literature … This is a book that brings the reader pleasure. Rune Christiansen gives literary expression to an existential feeling of gravity and redemption that you rarely see in Norwegian contemporary novels”
NRK P2

“This year’s novel is profoundly down to earth, and its story is neither spectacular nor full of acion. Even so, the reader is pulled forward through short chapters, unexpected passages and not least the author’s clear, beautiful prose … In Lydia’s independent life, loneliness is more than a sad sensation. It is also soothing and an inevitable necessity if you want to bring change into your life … Christiansen has written a book without equal”
Drammens Tidende

“A quiet tribute to work and life, caringly constructed and written in captivating prose: Rune Christiansen at his very best … The novel is written with a seductive ease … a very caringly executed work of prose, which quickly puts the reader in a state which perhaps resembles joy … I don’t know any other Norwegian writer who has this sensuous ability to capture such experiences in writing”
Dagsavisen

“Rich and low-key … his elegant writing makes him one of the greats of contemporary prose. Again and again he delivers solid, powerful, pure novels written in a prose so brilliant that every new Christiansen novel becomes an event … a novel that invites tranquility, recognition and reflection”
Hamar Arbeiderblad

“This is a book of rare beauty … a beautiful, riveting and moving novel that should be read in undisturbed silence. The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life can put the reader in a double state of joy. Firstly through the feeling of pleasure that an outstanding literary style can give. The prose is simple, agile, lucid, but also vigorous and full of metaphors … Secondly through the feeling of wellbeing and comfort of the book’s content, in its description of Lydia’s own meaningful life while it is being lived”
Stavanger Aftenblad

“There are no major events worth mentioning in Lydia’s life, but as a reader you want to get to know her better page after page. I read Rune Christiansen’s novel breathlessly, as it were. He writes beautifully dosed.”
Bart Moeyaert, author of Graz

“Rune Christiansen has written a novel of rare beauty”
De Standaard der Letteren, Belgium

“Observations of everyday, ordinary things in life are strung together like a poetic bead necklace. Wonderful life story, translated from Norwegian into balanced Dutch and provided with a melancholy that carries proud and determined lightness. Language, nature and protagonist together create an atmosphere of nostalgia for what is, was or has not even been. Read and feel Lydia and you are not lonely – read and be like Lydia, and you are never lonely.’
NBD Biblion, Netherlands

“It doesn’t happen often to me that I finish a book, pick it up almost immediately and start reading again with the same intensity and increasing expectation as the first time.
It is intriguing what sets Christiansen’s clear, poetic language in motion. His soberly elegant sentences have power, drive you forward in the reading. Light in tone, soft and delicate, they awaken your vigilance to what lies almost imperceptibly beneath the great amount of details of everyday life. It is a book to cherish for a long time, also because of the stylish version with a fascinating painting by Barbara Guldenaar on the cover.’
Mappalibri, Belgium

“A wonderful book about the solitude and beauty of things and how you relate to the people, to the work you do, to your parents. It’s a rest … and such a nice ending … So nice to start the year with.”
News Weekend, Dutch Radio

“An outstanding novel about the massive and at the same time intangible darkness … A beautiful, wonderfully vivid and addictive novel, which quite deservedly won the Brage Prize in the author’s home country … Perhaps [loneliness] is a fundamental premise, a depressive heritage, perhaps it is a universal part of the human condition? Christiansen is wise enough not to answer the question, leaving the novel open to interpretation, charging it instead with its own melancholically tinged beauty”
Berlingske Tidende, Denmark

“Christiansen has written a gorgeous novel about being alone … Mercifully Christiansen doesn’t draw any boring conclusions when it comes to emotions … His prose is intense without being sticky, vital without being lively in that fashionable way where jargon and technology links everything to a certain time”
Politiken, Denmark

“A novel without an upsetting story. An ordinary life made interesting through psychological insight and fascinating prose, rich with images … Through his portrait of Lydia’s contented, lonely mind, Christiansen has had all the success that an author can desire: the Gyldendal Prize, the Brage Prize and a devoted readership. He deserves to have the latter in Denmark too”
Weekendavisen, Denmark

“A beautiful portrait of  a young woman’s life in the countryside, with loneliness as both a friend, protector and existential necessity … a portrait of a woman with an inner straitjacket. Unforgettable, rich, beautiful, claustrophobic”
Kristeligt Dagblad, Denmark