A simple tale of Sonja who is stuck in her life. She is trying but not getting very far with various aspects of her growth - learning to drive, to communicate with her sister, and entering a new period of her life now that she has turned 40, The author sticks to straightforward prose, with little in flowery literary phrasing.

A solid tale of every-day life for Sonja.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for my free ARC.

A strange combination of stream of consciousness and detailed childhood memories make this novel a little tricky to read. A pathos runs through it, the protagonist constantly beset by anxiety about learning to drive, about family relationships, friendships and fear of approaches by men.

I was intrigued to read this after it was nominated for a Man Booker Prize. The story hinges around a woman attempting to drive in Denmark and Sweden, and the various inadequacies that it conjured up. Being in the same position, I was empathetic with the protagonist but it seemed to lack a real plot and point to the entire novel. It is well written and the multiple sub-stories are intriguing but I failed to grasp what the author was trying to show.

This is such an unusual novel with surprising freshness and wit, in spite of its rather unpromising central situation - that of a 40 year-old Danish woman taking driving lessons. Through a series of lessons and uncomfortable social interactions the reader gradually becomes drawn to Sonja's character and particular way of thinking. Her stream of consciousness style is quirky and funny; it makes us frustrated, amused, touched and sad, but ultimately we empathise with her, willing her to succeed. It manages to weave many different threads into its short narrative on different levels, and I feel it will remain with me for a long time.

I'm not good with translations really, so I didn't get very far - thus my review here is pretty much worthless. I didn't realise when I downloaded, thinking it was shortlisted for Booker, that it was the International Booker, and I just have a blind spot about reading modern fiction in translation - something to do with not trusting the language to be beautiful because it's not the original language.

Sonja, a literary translator for Swedish crime novels, is over forty, so she decides that it is finally time to get her driving license. In Copenhagen's streets she is not only fighting with the driving school's car and the other cars, cyclists and pedestrians around her, but also with her instructor Jytte who just does not let her change gears and yells at her all the time. When Sonja complains with the driving school's boss Folke, she is not sure if with another instructor, she will be able to learn how to move smoothly in the traffic. However, it is not only the failure in driving that worries the translator. She struggles with her current piece of work and especially with her family relationships. Her sister as well as her parents still live in the countryside where she grew up and with whom she hardly has any contact.

Dorthe Nors novel which is nominated for the 2017 International Man Booker Prize is an interesting piece of art. First of all, I found the central topic quite innovative, I cannot recollect ever having read a novel in which learning to drive a car is the focus of the plot. Yet, this is only on the surface the central aspect, Sonja's driving lessons are much more marked by the complicated relationships and conversations by the characters. Her first instructor, Jytte, is an outstanding person. She is not only outgoing and loud in every aspect, but also not very sensitive with her students. The encounter with a very reflective and intellectual woman who, additionally, is also a bit older and full of insecurity, can only lead to conflict which the two women avoid openly. The second instructor, Folke, is much more receptive to Sonja's emotional needs than he seems at first.

On the other hand, we have the complicated communication between the sisters which is mainly avoided or unsuccessful. Kate does not want to talk to Sonja, her husband repeatedly has to deny her being at home in order not to be confronted with the sister and old conflicts which have never been solved. Dorthe Nors has found an interesting picture to illustrate their relationship: “If Sonja and Kate were apples, you’d say that they’d fallen on two different sides of the three” (pos. 852). They come from the same tree, but then they lose sight of each other.

Sonja is symbolic for the modern inhabitant of a major city. She has many people around herself, her life is full of different things she can do in town, but underlying it all is a loneliness which sometimes surfaces and makes them aware of the poor quality of the many encounters they have:
“In Copenhagen you could have something else, and her first years were a success. She learned the city’s movements, its dialog, its form. But bit by bit it stopped making sense.” (pos. 1526)
Yet, life in the countryside is also not portrayed as the perfect solution. Much more the question is raised what is important in life and should it be more than just the fulfilment of basic needs.

Even though there is a certain melancholy which marks the novel, there are also funny situations and hilarious dialogues full of absurdity. Life is not only black and white, and sometimes you struggle with it, but as soon as you have found your place and have decided on what is important for you, you can find you balance and go on.

Regarding the nomination for the International Man Booker prize, I found others nominees I have read much more demanding, e.g. Mathias Enard’s “Compass” or David Grossman’s “A Horse Walks Into a Bar”. However, for such a renowned prize, Dorthe Nors’ novel is wonderful to read on different levels.