A review by ajith
Will and Testament: A Novel by Vigdis Hjorth

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.25

In the midst of an inheritance feud in a family of four siblings with octogenarian parents,Bergljot, the elder daughter in her fifties, battles her own emotions and delves into her estrangement from her family for more than two decades.After the passing away of her father, the meeting her family sets up to discuss the will proceedings provides Bergljot an opportunity to open up about the skeletons in her family's closet that,for many decades until that point,have been swept under the rug.

The psychological warfare that the family members wage against each other and to themselves, the strained relationships, the emotional toll it takes on Bergljot, her insomnia, her alcoholism, and the interpretations that she deduces from her dreams all renders a corrosive effect on her,which kind of fluctuates as we progress along in this intense family drama.

Right from the start the reader is conditioned to a revelation that is imminent, but it doesn't happen until more than half of the book is over. Was there an opportunity to trim down the narrative than letting it sound like a broken record on a few occasions? Perhaps yes,but I can also appreciate that the subject matter could have demanded that kind of writing style.Anyhow, any of that didn't dampen the overall readability of the book.

If I were an enterprising polyglot I would have also read the original Norwegian novel,which by the way is not an insinuation that this translated version is inferior by any means. Imagine this - despite being not a whodunit or not a thriller, if this english version can package emotions so very well and keep me engrossed throughout, how good would the original be ? Along with Vigdis Hjorth, the translator Charlotte Barslund also deserves a huge shout out.