Beauty Around Us

Devastated that everything she cares about gets lost, driven by a sudden fear of becoming as modern and asexual as her own era, the main character travels west, looking for things past. And discovers herself. In the bed she slept in as a child, at the foot of a steep mountain, she sees that everything exists. Time and space cease to exist, anything can happen, nothing is impossible when surrounded by summer guests, family friends, birch trees and the sea. Comets rush towards the planet, icicles fall down and houses burn to the ground, in a story that arouses one's senses and desires and asks: What forces a child to write down everything to her self, secretly, in the dark?

Praise for Beauty Around Us:

“Strangeness added to beauty … strangely beautiful and deeply peculiar. And in my opinion this is writing of the highest order. Tusvik proves herself a true master: In her writing the naive perspective of a child is mixed with a supreme , wise sense of melancholy … Here Tusvik stands side by side with her Swedish colleagues Tunström and Enquist, in The Christmas Oratory and Captain Nemo’s Library respectively. With Beauty around Us Danish readers have been given another great Nordic voice to listen to.”
(Simon Hastrup, Bogmagasinet from Arnold Busck, Denmark)

“This is a incredibly wonderful  and very original memoir … life affirming … the tone is poetic, light and healing … funny in unexpected ways … It is quite simply marvellous.”
(Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen, Kulturguiden P2, Denmark)

“The book is a sensitive and poetic  portrait of a childhood … It’s spellbinding and as a reader you are captivated from the very first page … Marit Tusvik’s gift to her reader is her wonderfully poetic prose, an irresistible sense of humour and numerous shrewd observations … Beauty around Us makes you want more, much more.”
(Doris Ottesen, Kristeligt Dagblad, Denmark)

“A sensuous memoir … Her expressive and humourous dialogues and scenes from everyday life in the 1950s evokes a lot in the reader. Tusvik hits a peculiar nerve in the language and her depiction of childhood seen through the eyes of the child is convincing, poetic, moving and recognizable. Hopefully more of her books will be translated.”
(Christine Fur Fischer, Fyens Stiftstidende, Denmark)

“A wonderful Norwegian childhood is nostalgically described in Marit Tusvik’s sensitive, bright novel … There are plenty of  finely articulated philosophical observations and childish linguistic phallacies.”
(Marie Tetzlaff, Politiken, Denmark)

“Marit Tusvik’s writing is sparkling and full of atmosphere … There is something about other people’s memories: they make you remember. At least the best ones. Such as Beauty around Us, Marit Tusvik’s shimmering description of her childhood by steep mountains and wide fjords. There is something about her prose that get your associations running. She can leap from bird’s eye view to the tiniest detail  without losing the child’s sense of wonder along the way. She keeps a firm chronology while at the same time letting the narrative be chopped up into the small and illogical fragments and strange contradictions … You can only write about happy times in such a sparkling, smiling and atmospheric way.”
(Henriette Bacher Lind, Jyllandsposten, Dernmark)

“An intense and powerful story of a childhood in a small town in 1950s Norway. Narrated with a child’s sensuous and sometimes fantastic prose.”
(Litteratursiden, Denmark)

"Playful and poetic (...) Beauty Around Us is a novel with some indelible scenes - a novel that is charming because it is different, and delightful because it has a poetic and humorous take on the strangest of all: time and the memories we get lost in.
(Dagbladet)

"Original, powerful and beautiful (...) Beauty Around Us is a detailed, funny and nostalgic journey into a time and a life that was and still is. This is a quiet book that ends up being a valuable read."
(NRK)

First published: 2009, Oktober
Marit Tusvik: Biography and bibliography

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