AshehougAgency

Terminal Velocity

320 metres: The distance from the top of the Empire State Building to the street below. The distance covered by the main character from the first to the last page in Johan Mjønes’ debut novel.

But of course there is a story behind this. As the man starts falling, he suddenly sees his own life as if from the outside, and a question forms in his mind: How did he become his own murderer?

He sees himself a year earlier, as his girlfriend walks out the door, never to return. He sees him permanently stretched out in the couch after that, until struck by a realization while watching a film on TV. He sees scenes from their relationship, but also memories from further back, from his youth and childhood. Moments of the kind that leave marks on a person, some soft and safe and warm, others cold and hard. And as he approaches his terminal velocity – the maximum speed of a given falling object – and the ground, the man approaches a clearer view of his own life, but the mystery remains: Did it have to end like this? Did he have to jump?

In an inventive form well suited to its subject, Mjønes’ novel addresses the question of how certain moments, though seemingly insignificant, shape us and change us in profound ways – sometimes fatally.

Praise for TERMINAL VELOCITY:

“A remarkably successful first novel. More! … Mjønes (1976) is an unusually conscious and confident debutant ... captivating and thrilling ... [Terminal Velocity] is a harmonic literary construction, with a story which beautifully envelops itself”
(Aftenbladet)

“High ambitions and impressive imagery in a more than promising first novel about a fall from 310 metres. … It’s the approach that distinguishes this novel … Mjønes [has] a remarkable talent for imagery. And he has a fantastic ability to articulate the inarticulable.”
(Dagbladet)

“An excellent and well written debut from Johan Mjønes, who deals with a subject as difficult and tabooed as suicide with imaginative prose and human wisdom … Mjønes sews it all elegantly together, the material comes alive, and the author masters a broad palette of literary devices … A rare storyteller talent, [Mjønes] has written a sad and beautiful text that remains with the reader long after the book’s final page.”
(Adresseavisen)

“… an impressive debut … Mjønes challenges us as readers, discusses central, even existential problems – quite simply forces us to think. Occasionally Mjønes pleases us with short, sparkling stories, which still form parts of an unbroken, unified novel.”
(Fædrelandsvennen)

First published: 2009, Aschehoug
Johan Mjønes: Biography and bibliography