It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour One Last Time by Helga Flatland, translation by Rosie Hedger.
About the Author
Helga Flatland is already one of Norway’s most awarded and widely read authors. Born in Telemark, Norway, in 1984, she made her literary debut in 2010 with the novel Stay If You Can, Leave If You Must, for which she was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Prize. She has written four novels and a children’s book and has won several other literary awards.
Her fifth novel, A Modern Family (her first English translation), was published to wide acclaim in Norway in August 2017, and was a number-one bestseller. The rights have subsequently been sold across Europe and the novel has sold more than 100,000 copies. One Last Time was published in Norway in 2020, where it topped the bestseller lists, and was shortlisted for the Norwegian Booksellers Award.
About the book
Anne’s life is rushing to an unexpected and untimely end. But her diagnosis of terminal cancer isn’t just a shock for her – and for her daughter Sigrid and granddaughter Mia – it shines a spotlight onto their fractured and uncomfortable relationships.
A spur-of-the moment trip to France acts as a catalyst for the three generations of women to reveal harboured secrets, long-held frustrations and suppressed desires – and to learn humbling and heartwarming lessons about how life should be lived when death is so close.
With all of Helga Flatland’s trademark insight, sharp yet warm wit and deep empathy, One Last Time examines the great dramas that can be found in ordinary lives, asks the questions that matter to us all – and ultimately celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.
An enchantingly beautiful novel that urges us to treasure what we have and rethink how we live our lives, from one of Norway’s most distinguished literary novelists.
Review
Sigrid is struggling with a daughter who is an adult and no longer under the remit of her motherly command and concern, and with the fact Mia has reconnected with her bio father. The last thing on her mind is possibly losing her own mother. A mother she treats with contempt and blames for a difficult childhood.
Anne doesn't care to play into the complaints of her daughter and indeed remembers the same events differently. It's possibly an disaster waiting to happen when they all go on a trip to France. An excellent opportunity for the three generations of women to bond through more than just a forced obligatory relationship.
It's interesting, but not unusual, that none of the women, especially Anne and Sigrid, are unable to reflect on the parallels between each other. If they were able to then perhaps the crevices between them wouldn't be getting wider by the day.
Flatland has her finger on the pulse of family dynamics and relationships. She writes the jagged truth of the emotional warfare and turmoil of mother and daughter relationships. Picks apart the miscommunication and silences, and then delivers a read that is like a bird flying home to roost. We see ourselves in the characters and reflect upon the moments missed, misspoken words and opportunities that are lost forever. It's a story that moves the heart and settles the mind.
Buy One Last Time at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Orenda Books pub date 24 April 2021. Buy at Amazon com.
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