How can a couple continue living together while knowing that one of them is dying, that in a year one will be left alone, that this is the last New Year they will spend side by side? In this deeply moving novel, Ørstavik explores the ups and downs of such a relationship, the words left unsaid in the face of inevitable death, and the physical and emotional pain of a dying husband. Written from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, the story feels intensely personal, making it difficult to believe that it is not drawn from the author’s own experience. This only adds to its emotional power. Ørstavik raises profound questions about death, love, honesty, and how people speak — or fail to speak — about what is happening to them. A sad but deeply thoughtful novel
”Imagining the pictures you were working on filled me with excitement. Would they show me who you were inside, give me a point of entry into places in you I’d never been? Places I hoped and believed really did exist, that was the reason I fell for you in the first place, your eyes, the promise they held of this great inner landscape where perhaps I could wander too, at your side. Who are you?”
Original Title : Ti Amo
Translated from Norwegian