Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life: A Novel

Wait, Blink is the first English-language translation of award-winning Norwegian author Gunnhild Øyehaug’s inventive novel of interwoven stories following a group of artistic women pursuing their ambitions despite endless distractions and disappointments. Sigrid is a young literature student trying to find her voice as a writer when she falls in love with an older, established author, whose lifestyle soon overwhelms her values and once-clear vision. Trine has reluctantly become a mother and struggles to create as a performance artist. The aspiring movie director Linnea scouts locations in Copenhagen for a film she will never make. As these characters’ stories collide and intersect, they find that dealing with the pressures of their lives also means coming to grips with a world both frightening and joyously ridiculous. Wait, Blink combines wild associations, quotations, coincidences, and other peculiar details into a unique tale that is both humorous and profound. Full of the playfulness that drew acclaim for her story collection Knots , Gunnhild Øyehaug’s Wait, Blink —her first novel to be translated into English—is a jolt of desire and fantasy, romance and regret: a fable about what it means to own up to the weirdness inside us all.

"Expansive, intimate, and filled to the brim with delight, Gunnhild Oyehaug's first novel is devoted to the unexpected connections between lonesome individuals, mundane rituals, jellyfish, death, oversized men's shirts, and a thousand other things too astonishing to spoil in this sentence. I truly loved this wide-eyed, all-embracing wonder of a book." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Sigrid is a young literature student trying to find her voice as a writer when she falls in love with an older, established author, whose lifestyle soon overwhelms her values and once-clear vision. Trine has reluctantly become a mother and struggles to create as a performance artist. The aspiring movie director Linnea scouts locations in Copenhagen for a film she will never make. As these characters’ stories collide and intersect, they find that dealing with the pressures of their lives also means coming to grips with a world both frightening and joyously ridiculous.

Wait, Blink combines wild associations, quotations, coincidences, and other peculiar details into a unique tale that is both humorous and profound. Full of the playfulness that drew acclaim for her story collection Knots, Gunnhild Øyehaug’s Wait, Blink—her first novel to be translated into English—is a jolt of desire and fantasy, romance and regret: a fable about what it means to own up to the weirdness inside us all.

"Expansive, intimate, and filled to the brim with delight, Gunnhild Oyehaug's first novel is devoted to the unexpected connections between lonesome individuals, mundane rituals, jellyfish, death, oversized men's shirts, and a thousand other things too astonishing to spoil in this sentence. I truly loved this wide-eyed, all-embracing wonder of a book." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine Sigrid is a young literature student trying to find her voice as a writer when she falls in love with an older, established author, whose lifestyle soon overwhelms her values and once-clear vision. Trine has reluctantly become a mother and struggles to create as a performance artist. The aspiring movie director Linnea scouts locations in Copenhagen for a film she will never make. As these characters' stories collide and intersect, they find that dealing with the pressures of their lives also means coming to grips with a world both frightening and joyously ridiculous. Wait, Blink combines wild associations, quotations, coincidences, and other peculiar details into a unique tale that is both humorous and profound. Full of the playfulness that drew acclaim for her story collection Knots , Gunnhild Øyehaug's Wait, Blink —her first novel to be translated into English—is a jolt of desire and fantasy, romance and regret: a fable about what it means to own up to the weirdness inside us all. "Sigrid is a young literature student trying to find her own voice, but when she falls in love with an older, established author, she finds herself overwhelmed by his ideas and lifestyle. Trine, an outrageous performance artist, has recently and reluctantly become a mother, but is finding it increasingly difficult to balance the care of her child with her outsized ambitions. Linnea is an aspiring director scouting filming locations in Copenhagen, but her hopelessly smitten producer already knows that this movie will never be made. Written from a lively God's-eye view, darting in and out of these and other characters' stories at will, and painting a world that is both frightening and joyously ridiculous, Wait, Blink traces the absurd collisions and intersections of people who may never, in reality, meet. Filled with wild associations, quotations, coincidences, fantasies, and jokes, it tramples on traditional storytelling in ways that are both hilarious and profound"-- Provided by publisher Sigrid is a young literature student trying to find her voice as a writer when she falls in love with an older, established author, whose lifestyle soon overwhelms her values and once-clear artistic vision. Trine has reluctantly become a mother and struggles to create as a performance artist. The aspiring movie director Linnea scouts locations in Copenhagen for a film she will never make. As these characters stories collide and intersect, they find that dealing with the pressures of their lives also means coming to grips with a world both frightening and joyously ridiculous [a] Novel Of Interwoven Stories Following A Group Of Artistic Women Pursuing Their Ambitions Despite Endless Distractions And Disappointments. Gunnhild Øyehaug ; Translated From The Norwegian By Kari Dickson. Originally Published In Norwegian In 2008 By Kolon Forlag, Norway, As Vente, Blinke -- Title Page Verso.