The Guests by Agnes Ravatn
It started with a lie...
Married couple Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives, and reluctantly accept an offer to stay in a luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords.
Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, however, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and in a less- than-friendly meeting with their new neighbours, Karin tells a little white lie...
Against the backdrop of the glistening water and within the claustrophobic walls of the ultra-modern house, Karin’s insecurities blossom, and her lie grows ever bigger, entangling her and her husband in a nightmare spiral of deceits with absolutely no means of escape...
About the author
Agnes Ravatn is a Norwegian author and columnist. She made her literary début with the novel Week 53 in 2007. Since then she has written a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections, including Standing, Popular Reading and Operation Self-discipline, in which she recounts her experience with social-media addiction. Her debut thriller, The Bird Tribunal, won the cultural radio P2’s listener’s prize in addition to The Youth’s Critic’s Prize, and was made into a successful play in Oslo in 2015. The English translation, published by Orenda Books in 2016, was a WHSmith Fresh Talent Pick, winner of a PEN Translation Award, a BBC Radio Four ‘Book at Bedtime’ and shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the 2017 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. Critically acclaimed The Seven Doors was published in 2020. Agnes lives with her family in the Norwegian countryside.
Review
‘The Guests’ is a profound and subtle story that really gets under your skin and makes you question what you know about life. This was my first book by this author but I will be going back and reading her other books that have been translated into English as I adored this book. It short and sweet but definitely not simple. It's not a book that shouts at you either, it creates a beautiful tale that whispers that things are not okay, people can deceive and events can be misconstrued.
Karin and Kai, are a married couple with two sons and when Karin bumps into an old school chum, Iris, it leads to them vacationing at Iris’s holiday chalet. Karin has a reason to hate Iris, but hates conflict so ends up helping her out with a little legal problem so as a thank you is given a week at their extraordinary chalet. A glass and wood box fitted out to the highest spec, but Karin is ungrateful and doesn't want to be there. The luxury on show makes her even more resentful of Iris and increases Karin’s sense of inadequacy and worthlessness. Is she happy with her life? No. She loves her sons, but feels she hasn't accomplished a proper legal career, she isn't using her intelligence and Kai her husband is just an ordinary joiner. This week away causes her to reflect and compare her life with Iris and feel inadequate.
One afternoon she goes for a walk and bumps into her neighbour Per, who is a well-known author and implies that she is the owner of the cabin. This one small lie becomes the start of a weird interaction between the two couples.
Ravatn manages to create such vivid and complex characters in such a short piece of fiction and I was blown away by how nuanced and well-developed they were. Karin is obviously the star of the show and I could totally relate to her and her feelings. Most people feel like her at some point in their lives and the author manages to convey this in such a beautiful way. Yes, I do mean beautiful as it this book shows humanity very realistically. Karin and her feelings are vividly portrayed. She is deeply unhappy even though she has what many desire. She is always wanting more, comparing herself to others and finding her life lacking.
I flew through this in one sitting and was drawn deeply into the story and its superb writing. It's deep, full of dark humour and I thoroughly recommend it!
Let me know if you pick it up!
