Convenience store quiet days

Telemann, the Norwegian playwright’s wife and three children, spends the summer in a small Bavarian town. While trying to convince not only his wife but himself that he is working on a play that is “primordial energy itself, a life-threatening elemental force,” he is actually daydreaming about the star chef, Nigella, blessed with rich figures. Although the couple only wanted to spend a pleasant holiday, their whole relationship is in jeopardy - and to top it all off, they have to get to the vineyard with even the English-speaking host family Bader… Erlend Loe’s latest novel is almost a drama itself: a series of grotesque dialogue fragments they accurately and insightfully show the story of a marriage drifting aimlessly, balancing on the verge of falling apart. As usual, the author laughs and doubts the reader at the same time, putting new situations in a new light.