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First published in Norway in 1947, this “breathtakingly powerful” In the blue dusk of a spring evening, a man is drawn to a lonely, beautiful stranger across a station platform. She follows him home, and over one heady night of wine and cigarettes, recounts to him the haunting story of her life. When an obsessive passion for her small town’s high school teacher consumes her at the age of seventeen, she spirals out of control, resulting in pregnancy, poverty, and alienation. Unrequited love blooms against the shadows of societal injustices of interwar Norway as she fights for autonomy: over the rest of her life, her mind, and her body. Captivating, visceral, and brimming with emotion,
About the author
Torborg Nedreaas (1906-1987) was born in Bergen, Norway, and was one of the most acclaimed writers of the post-war era. She was heavily involved in women’s advocacy and leftist organizing, and her many award-winning novels, short stories, essays and radio plays propelled her radical ideas to a wide audience.
Summary
First published in Norway in 1947, this “breathtakingly powerful” (The Guardian) novel of one woman’s soul-shattering love affair introduces a major twentieth-century international writer to an American audience.
“It is really strange what a sense of rhythm life has. For some of us. It plays with you, like a cat with a mouse, and hooks you with a claw every time you think you’re safe or alright. That’s the way it’s almost always been for me. Well, now the claw has come to stay.”
In the blue dusk of a spring evening, a man is drawn to a lonely, beautiful stranger across a station platform. She follows him home, and over one heady night of wine and cigarettes, recounts to him the haunting story of her life. When an obsessive passion for her small town’s high school teacher consumes her at the age of seventeen, she spirals, resulting in pregnancy, poverty, and alienation. Unrequited love blooms against the shadows of societal injustices of interwar Norway as she fights for autonomy--over her life, her mind, and her body.
Captivating, visceral, and brimming with emotion, Nothing Grows by Moonlight, is a classic about what it means to navigate an oppressive society made for men and an uncompromising ode to love, longing, and desire.
