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Near Distance
“Stoltenberg’s elegant prose makes each scene . . . so engaging that it gives plot a bad name.”—John Self, The Guardian
For her entire life, Karin has fled from anything and anyone that tries to possess her. Her job demands nothing, she mostly socializes with men she meets online, and she’s rarely in touch with Helene, her adult daughter. But when Helene’s marriage is threatened, she turns, uncharacteristically, to her mother for commiseration and a long weekend away in London. As the two women embark on their uneasy companionship, Karin’s past, and the origins of her studied detachments are cast in a new light, and she can no longer ignore their effects—on not only herself and her own relationships, but on her daughter’s as well.
An unnerving, closely observed study of character—and the choices we do and do not make—Near Distance introduces Hanna Stoltenberg as writer of piercing insight and uncommon lucidity.
For her entire life, Karin has fled from anything and anyone that tries to possess her. Her job demands nothing, she mostly socializes with men she meets online, and she’s rarely in touch with Helene, her adult daughter. But when Helene’s marriage is threatened, she turns, uncharacteristically, to her mother for commiseration and a long weekend away in London. As the two women embark on their uneasy companionship, Karin’s past, and the origins of her studied detachments are cast in a new light, and she can no longer ignore their effects—on not only herself and her own relationships, but on her daughter’s as well.
An unnerving, closely observed study of character—and the choices we do and do not make—Near Distance introduces Hanna Stoltenberg as writer of piercing insight and uncommon lucidity.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 19, 2025
Longlisted for the Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
Near Distance is Wendy H Gabrielsen's translation from Norwegian of the 2019 novel Nada by Hanna Stoltenberg (2019), which won the Tarjei Vesaas' Debutantpris for first novels and the NATT&DAG Oslo prize. A sample of Gabrielsen's work led to her winning The Wigeland Prize, given to the best translation from Norwegian by a resident of Norway.
This is the first translated novel from Weatherglass Books, an independent press founded by Neil Griffiths (novelist and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses) and Damian Lanigan (novelist and playwright) - "Weatherglass was founded on a shared love of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and a shared fear that it wouldn’t find a publisher today."
This is also the August book from the Republic of Consciousness Prize Book of the Month club: https://www.republicofconsciousness.c...
Near Distance is best, if reductively, described as a Vigdis Hjorth or Gwendoline Riley novel but from the perspective of the mother, here the gloriously passively self-centred Karin, 53 years old, mother to Helene and grandmother to her two children, but that is not how she self-defines, indeed resisting labelling altogether as she works in a jewellery store in which she has little interest and hooks-up with strangers.
The morning passes quickly. She reads,peels a banana, eats it and washes her hands afterwards. For lunch she has a smoothie from the cafe next door, then goes back and buys a coffee. Later she tries on some rings from a Swiss brand, promoted by an actor with pouty lips. She never seriously pictured a career for herself, or certainly not this one. Maybe she was stupid to have dropped out of university, pregnant with Helene, yet she's fine with where she has ended up. The days have a regularity she enjoys. She rarely listens to music; she usually reads novels and online newspapers or chats with men from the dating website and fixes dates she either keeps or cancels, depending on how she feels on the day. Sometimes she sees friends, old colleagues, goes to the cinema or has dinner. She has no problem finding things to talk about and is a good listener, but afterwards she often feels distorted by her own words and wishes she had stayed at home. It doesn't bother her to be alone. As long as your basic needs are covered — food, shelter, the possibility of intimacy — how much difference is there really between a good and a bad life? With this insight it seems embarrassing to throw yourself passionately into things, behaving like you can't distinguish between who you are and the role you play.
Taking a role seriously is the trait she most seems to dislike in others, and the novel’s present tense narration fits neatly with Karin’s unambitious desire to live in the moment.
But when Helene suspects her husband is having an affair she asks Karin to come with her on a long weekend shopping trip to London, and we, and Karin, start to see her own self deception unravel. And the novel neatly has the ending of Helene’s story narrated as Karin’s imagining of what happens when she returns to Norway from London, indicating she is starting to imagine the world from others’ perspectives.
An insightful and absorbing character study and a book I’d like to see on next year’s International Booker list.
Near Distance is Wendy H Gabrielsen's translation from Norwegian of the 2019 novel Nada by Hanna Stoltenberg (2019), which won the Tarjei Vesaas' Debutantpris for first novels and the NATT&DAG Oslo prize. A sample of Gabrielsen's work led to her winning The Wigeland Prize, given to the best translation from Norwegian by a resident of Norway.
This is the first translated novel from Weatherglass Books, an independent press founded by Neil Griffiths (novelist and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses) and Damian Lanigan (novelist and playwright) - "Weatherglass was founded on a shared love of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and a shared fear that it wouldn’t find a publisher today."
This is also the August book from the Republic of Consciousness Prize Book of the Month club: https://www.republicofconsciousness.c...
Near Distance is best, if reductively, described as a Vigdis Hjorth or Gwendoline Riley novel but from the perspective of the mother, here the gloriously passively self-centred Karin, 53 years old, mother to Helene and grandmother to her two children, but that is not how she self-defines, indeed resisting labelling altogether as she works in a jewellery store in which she has little interest and hooks-up with strangers.
The morning passes quickly. She reads,peels a banana, eats it and washes her hands afterwards. For lunch she has a smoothie from the cafe next door, then goes back and buys a coffee. Later she tries on some rings from a Swiss brand, promoted by an actor with pouty lips. She never seriously pictured a career for herself, or certainly not this one. Maybe she was stupid to have dropped out of university, pregnant with Helene, yet she's fine with where she has ended up. The days have a regularity she enjoys. She rarely listens to music; she usually reads novels and online newspapers or chats with men from the dating website and fixes dates she either keeps or cancels, depending on how she feels on the day. Sometimes she sees friends, old colleagues, goes to the cinema or has dinner. She has no problem finding things to talk about and is a good listener, but afterwards she often feels distorted by her own words and wishes she had stayed at home. It doesn't bother her to be alone. As long as your basic needs are covered — food, shelter, the possibility of intimacy — how much difference is there really between a good and a bad life? With this insight it seems embarrassing to throw yourself passionately into things, behaving like you can't distinguish between who you are and the role you play.
Taking a role seriously is the trait she most seems to dislike in others, and the novel’s present tense narration fits neatly with Karin’s unambitious desire to live in the moment.
But when Helene suspects her husband is having an affair she asks Karin to come with her on a long weekend shopping trip to London, and we, and Karin, start to see her own self deception unravel. And the novel neatly has the ending of Helene’s story narrated as Karin’s imagining of what happens when she returns to Norway from London, indicating she is starting to imagine the world from others’ perspectives.
An insightful and absorbing character study and a book I’d like to see on next year’s International Booker list.
September 15, 2023
Near Distance is a tale of widening space between a mother and a daughter as they navigate their disparate lives. The mother, solitary and single; the daughter; a precarious marriage with two young children.
They both share an incessant restlessness within them, as if searching for something more in the spaces we call living. Karin is a spectator in her daughter's life, touching from a distance; encapsulated perfectly when she tags along for drinks with Helene's friends in London: 'Karin feels like a voyeur, someone who doesn't belong there'. Karin muses that Helene is akin to someone who's adrift, and all she wants to do is to save her.
Nothing really happens in Near Distance. Nothing except everything, as the gaps between those who we love widen and we teeter on the edge.
There is something extremely disheartening about this novel. I wouldn't describe it as an enjoyable read, more unnerving - it's a mirror held forcibly aloft, and more often than not we don't like what we see.
Near Distance was first published as 'Nada' in Norway in 2019, and won the Tarjej Vesaas' debutant prize.
Now translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen and set to be published in the UK by Weatherglass Books. A big thanks to Neil at Weatherglass Books for the advance copy.
They both share an incessant restlessness within them, as if searching for something more in the spaces we call living. Karin is a spectator in her daughter's life, touching from a distance; encapsulated perfectly when she tags along for drinks with Helene's friends in London: 'Karin feels like a voyeur, someone who doesn't belong there'. Karin muses that Helene is akin to someone who's adrift, and all she wants to do is to save her.
Nothing really happens in Near Distance. Nothing except everything, as the gaps between those who we love widen and we teeter on the edge.
There is something extremely disheartening about this novel. I wouldn't describe it as an enjoyable read, more unnerving - it's a mirror held forcibly aloft, and more often than not we don't like what we see.
Near Distance was first published as 'Nada' in Norway in 2019, and won the Tarjej Vesaas' debutant prize.
Now translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen and set to be published in the UK by Weatherglass Books. A big thanks to Neil at Weatherglass Books for the advance copy.
April 23, 2021
Ne mogu vam ja ove priče o ljudskim realnostima i glupostima, dosta mi je ovih ljudi kojima sam okružena
November 30, 2023
Give me all of contemporary female fiction, please.
August 29, 2025
I messed up. I couldn't think of Hanne Østravik's name and read this when I was actually looking for Stay With Me. But whatever this wasn't terrible.
March 17, 2025
This tight novella about a woman who has tended to resist any long term commitment to anyone, even her own adult daughter is a closely observed, well composed character study. Karin is a self conscious, self-contained woman who tends to prefer spending her days at a job that does not ask much of her and hooking up with men she meets online or at bars. It surprises her when her daughter reaches out with concerns about her own marriage, but agrees to spend the weekend with her in London. Karin is very observant of those around her, isolated as she is in her own mid-life existence, and this allows the creation of rich, intense—and yet spare—narrative. This is Stoltenberg's debut and will be interesting to watch her develop as a writer.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/03/16/th...
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/03/16/th...
December 29, 2024
NEAR DISTANCE by Hanna Stoltenberg translated from the Norwegian by Wendy H. Gabrielsen is a great character study in just 145 pages. This book explores the relationship between Karin and her adult daughter Helene. They’re both facing troubles in their respective relationships with men. I really enjoyed the concise timeline and flawed characters. Their mother and daughter relationship was complex and interesting. I really enjoyed reading this book and it could easily be read in one sitting. I love a good short book!
Thank you to Biblioasis Books for my copy!
Thank you to Biblioasis Books for my copy!
March 10, 2025
Near Distance by Hanna Stoltenberg is an apt title for the strained relationship of the mother and daughter in this prize-winning novel from Norway. The mother is a divorced woman of around fifty who enjoys the noncommittal aspects of online dating and sex, appreciates her drink, is uninterested in her job managing a jewelry store, and only occasionally sees her daughter and grandchildren. Most of the narrative is from her perspective. The daughter invites her to a "girls weekend" in London and reveals her purpose once they are in the plane. She is stalking her husband's mistress and wants moral support from her mother. They proceed to meet up with her daughter's old friends, become separated and drink too much. Extraordinary detail is provided of each bleak scene in this almost plotless novel which moves along at a sure pace with precise descriptions and skillful characterization. Each time I picked up the book, I remember thinking there is nothing happening here, yet I kept reading. I recommend it for its excellent prose and portrayals as well as Wendy H. Gabrielsen's superb translation. One reviewer described it as reminiscent of early Ian McEwan which fits.
April 26, 2021
Tri stranice pred kraj su presudile da ostane na 3⭐! Nijesam oduševljena, iako je ideja bila dobra i mnogo je obećavala za svojih 150 strana i jedini zaključak je da ne osuđujem Karin ni za šta i da me Helene nervira do kosti i to je to!
August 8, 2025
Women in Translation Month - Book #4
★★★
★★★
January 31, 2024
This is a short book and for the most part I found it too unnecessarily observational in a way that added little depth or value to the story. Had those observations been stripped out maybe the story would have been 40 pages.
The writing really gained strength towards the end: observations that did add value, insight into the characters that was lacking earlier, we started to get some pay offs.
I'm on the fence with even liking this book but I tip slightly into the 'enjoyed' camp because of the end. The story didn't teach us anything but maybe it picked at a few scabs in your own relationships... hmm... did it for me? Maybe but it fell short in forcing a confrontation.
The writing really gained strength towards the end: observations that did add value, insight into the characters that was lacking earlier, we started to get some pay offs.
I'm on the fence with even liking this book but I tip slightly into the 'enjoyed' camp because of the end. The story didn't teach us anything but maybe it picked at a few scabs in your own relationships... hmm... did it for me? Maybe but it fell short in forcing a confrontation.
November 7, 2025
Jeg er alltid takknemlig for usympatiske kvinnelige karakterer. Når boka slutter skulle jeg egentlig ønske det var 100-200 sider igjen, for nå har jeg virkelig blitt nysgjerrig på både Karen og Helene. Noen av skildringene i boka føles ikke helt troverdige, det er småting som føles som at disse folka ikke finnes, det er detaljer som ikke gir mening her, men det er nettopp småting. Men jeg vet ikke om jeg klarer å sette ord på hva jeg likte så godt med boka?
September 19, 2019
Hva handlet denne boken egentlig om? Det var vanskelig å fange opp. Uten inndelinger i form av kapitler, samt de uendelige beskrivelsene av absolutt alt, gjorde den både tung å lese, og meg lite engasjert.
November 22, 2023
Readable but nothing special
November 13, 2025
This is a character driven story rather than plot. We follow a middle-aged woman, Karin, with a grown up daughter who lives alone and has unemotional hook ups with men. Throughout the story we see her as very detached and almost like she is on the outside looking in and therefore we as the reader always feel that we are one-step removed from the story.
As a mother, Karin does not seem particularly ‘maternal’ but we do see flashes from the past in which she was well-engaged with her daughter, but largely she is so disengaged from her own life that this bleeds into her relationship with her daughter. The present day narrative sees the daughter facing the infidelity of her own husband and begin to voice her issues with Karin, causing her to reflect on who she is and what she’s done.
Whilst sad, and often we feel frustrated at Karin’s actions and inability to speak up, this is so beautifully done.
As a mother, Karin does not seem particularly ‘maternal’ but we do see flashes from the past in which she was well-engaged with her daughter, but largely she is so disengaged from her own life that this bleeds into her relationship with her daughter. The present day narrative sees the daughter facing the infidelity of her own husband and begin to voice her issues with Karin, causing her to reflect on who she is and what she’s done.
Whilst sad, and often we feel frustrated at Karin’s actions and inability to speak up, this is so beautifully done.
November 19, 2024
When a daughter is born, a sliver of their mother is woven into them. Whether it's their nose, build, pain, passions, or fears, the two women are tied together and paralleled in a fun house-esque mirror. Near Distance introduces us to a flighty mother named Karin and her stern, adult daughter Helene, a pair whose relationship is like a rubberband: both of them pull away, striving to right the wrongs of solitude and motherhood, but with each action, it tightens, eventually leading them to each other once again. Hanna Stoltenberg lays this out with elegance and a bittersweet tone as the two women convene in London for the weekend amidst detachment, affairs, and lost love. Stoltenberg's musings on womanhood and Wendy Harrison Gabrielsen's effortless yet tight translation leave us with a stunning portrait of motherhood.
August 3, 2024
Hanna uses her characters very well in that she uses a mother, Karin, and a her daughter, Helene, who is also a mother with two children. She explains that Karin is divorced and seems to go from man to man and Helene, is worried that her husband has found a new woman which is wrecking their marriage and needs to get away from him with her mother. They decide to go to London which is where Helene went to college. Helene has friends in London and she felt like her mother and went with her former love Ed. It seemed like the book was about Karin but in the ending it was all Helene.
I liked the book but had some points that I felt deserved knowing. What can I say but I'm a man.
I liked the book but had some points that I felt deserved knowing. What can I say but I'm a man.
March 18, 2025
This brief novel centres around a difficult relationship between a fifty-some old mother (Karin) and her thirty-some old daughter Hanna. Things have been difficult since Karin broke off the link to Hanna's dad many years back and the two have let things slip, until a day when Hanna reaches out to her mom and confesses she's having severe issues with her partner. Over the course of a brief trip to London, the duo have a tendency to come closer and fall to bits in a cyclical fashion. Enjoyable story from a Norwegian author I hope we'll hear from again soon.
January 3, 2026
Likte utrolig godt denne skildringa av bokas to hovedpersoner, Karin og Helene. Karin fremstår så avsondret fra rollen som forelder, og omtales treffende nok aldri som det av barnet sitt. Det er mange såre scener her, et voksent barn som virker å ville gjøre det hun kan for å ikke bli som sin mor - samtidig som det drysses inn noen paralleller mellom dem. De virker å bli dratt mot hverandre, samtidig som avstanden fremstår så stor. Godt språk, god driv i tillegg til noe grublefremkallende.
October 22, 2023
Nice to focus on the flawed mum rather than her daughter as I have in recent books. I’d like to deduct another three stars though for the decision not to put the title or author on the spine - have I got a defective copy or is everyone in this publishers insane? It won’t be making it onto my bookshelves as a result, that’s for sure
June 19, 2025
"Karin is impressed by how seriously they take their roles, how supportive they are of each other’s performance"
"They had been married for twenty-eight years, they said, and been together for over thirty. ‘We use the same toothbrush, that’s the secret."
"They had been married for twenty-eight years, they said, and been together for over thirty. ‘We use the same toothbrush, that’s the secret."
June 29, 2025
stoltenberg’s prose is very precise and it’s very good at capturing interactions and relationships. it’s sparse and emotionally restrained. feels very nordic / scandinavian with all the emotional malaise.
September 1, 2019
Her er min omtale av "Nada": https://mineboker.wordpress.com/2019/...
Read
February 9, 2020Karin mor helene datter. Mor har forskjellige kærester. Helene sliter i ekteskap. Mye fortielser.
Ikke så gripende...
Ikke så gripende...
March 30, 2021
Imponerende debut
October 19, 2024
idk it felt too literary and smart for me. bit of genuinely narcissistic vibes from Karin and who knows what Helene was thinking
January 14, 2025
It all felt rather sterile. And unmemorable. For all that the translation has been praised, there were places were the English was a bit off.
February 10, 2025
Well written. Well translated. Not my sort of book wherein nothing and everything happens all at once.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews