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Elling #4
Elsk meg i morgen
Norwegian
262 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
8 people are currently reading
257 people want to read
About the author
Ingvar Ambjørnsen
96 books260 followersIngvar Even Ambjørnsen-Haefs (1956-2025) was a Norwegian writer. He is best known for his "Elling" tetralogy: Utsikt til paradiset (1993), Fugledansen (1995), Brødre i blodet (1996), and Elsk meg i morgen (1999).
Brødre i blodet ("Blood brothers") was turned into a successful movie, entitled Elling, which received an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Film category in 2001. The English translation of the novel is called Beyond the Great Indoors.
His debut novel was a semi-autobiography called 23-salen ("The 23rd Row"), in which he criticized Norway's efforts to take care of psychically challenged individuals. In all his novels he has spoken the outsiders' cause, as he did in his break-through novel Hvite Niggere ("White Niggers") in 1986. The novel is about a young man who leads a life somewhat on the edges of normal society.
He is also known for the youth's book series "Pelle og Proffen" which circles around two detective teenagers, getting involved in all kinds of mysteries or crimes involving drugs, pollution and neo-Nazism among other things. He started this project after having read some of Franklin W. Dixon's books about The Hardy Boys. The books Døden på Oslo S, Giftige Løgner, and De Blå Ulvene of this series were also turned into successful movies. In 2005 the book Drapene i Barkvik ("The murders in Barkvik") appeared, about the teenager Fillip Moberg attempting to solve an axe murder in a small Norwegian village.
Ambjørnsen has received many prizes for his writing. Among them is the prize for the 80s best book for children and young adults (Pelle and Proffen books), the Tabu prize in 2001, Telenor Culture Award 2002, and the Brage Prize 1995.
His three Samson and Roberto books have become particularly popular in Russia, in part due to the illustrations by Nikolai Vorontsov, which also contribute carefully orchestrated local Russian-related colloquialisms to the stories.
Brødre i blodet ("Blood brothers") was turned into a successful movie, entitled Elling, which received an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Film category in 2001. The English translation of the novel is called Beyond the Great Indoors.
His debut novel was a semi-autobiography called 23-salen ("The 23rd Row"), in which he criticized Norway's efforts to take care of psychically challenged individuals. In all his novels he has spoken the outsiders' cause, as he did in his break-through novel Hvite Niggere ("White Niggers") in 1986. The novel is about a young man who leads a life somewhat on the edges of normal society.
He is also known for the youth's book series "Pelle og Proffen" which circles around two detective teenagers, getting involved in all kinds of mysteries or crimes involving drugs, pollution and neo-Nazism among other things. He started this project after having read some of Franklin W. Dixon's books about The Hardy Boys. The books Døden på Oslo S, Giftige Løgner, and De Blå Ulvene of this series were also turned into successful movies. In 2005 the book Drapene i Barkvik ("The murders in Barkvik") appeared, about the teenager Fillip Moberg attempting to solve an axe murder in a small Norwegian village.
Ambjørnsen has received many prizes for his writing. Among them is the prize for the 80s best book for children and young adults (Pelle and Proffen books), the Tabu prize in 2001, Telenor Culture Award 2002, and the Brage Prize 1995.
His three Samson and Roberto books have become particularly popular in Russia, in part due to the illustrations by Nikolai Vorontsov, which also contribute carefully orchestrated local Russian-related colloquialisms to the stories.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 7, 2021
This fourth book about Elling has all of the comedy and tragedy, the laughter and tears of the first three titles in the series, if anything in slightly more concentrated form. I really like the entire series.
April 29, 2025
Begrep å ta inn i hverdagsvokabularet: "Sitte foran PCen på hjemmekontoret og bedrive sivilingeniørsk virksomhet."
January 2, 2026
Det blir enda mørkere og om mulig litt for grisete inni hodet til Elling
November 26, 2025
Det begynner å bli litt mye av det gode (eventuelt av det mørke og grisete), mulig fordi jeg har lest alle fire på rappen. Likte andre og tredje bok desidert best.
October 11, 2021
Another re-read from my youth. Honestly this should probably have been two stars, considering how I struggled with it, but I guess I will leave it at 3 for the past version of myself that appreciated the series more.
As in the first book, this one has a lot of Elling on his own, and his exaggerated thoughts, anxieties and fantasies. But because there's a lot less of his interacting with others, it loses much of the warmth and humour of the third book, and again there isn't really much of a story here. In short: Elling's life has gone to shambles now that he's living on his own again. He gets help from Kjell-Bjarne and Reidun to get back on track. He meets a woman, with predictably disastrous consequences.
Am I supposed to, and did I in the past, find Elling's troubled and outré thoughts amusing? I'm not sure if this is the intention, but mostly I found them tedious. There is a certain melancholy here, true, which may have appealed to me in the past, but because of the lack of outside view or interaction that also somehow doesn't really work. I feel bad for Elling, sort of. But at the same time I also feel like of course he's always going to end up back where he started because there is nothing in the story that makes him evolve.
I genuinely enjoyed and liked the third book in the series when I re-read that earlier this year, but it seems to be an exception to the rule. Now the question becomes, do I make myself read book number 5 which I bought a few years ago on a visit home, remembering being a fan of this series? It's still unread in my bookshelf. I guess I should at least give it a try.
As in the first book, this one has a lot of Elling on his own, and his exaggerated thoughts, anxieties and fantasies. But because there's a lot less of his interacting with others, it loses much of the warmth and humour of the third book, and again there isn't really much of a story here. In short: Elling's life has gone to shambles now that he's living on his own again. He gets help from Kjell-Bjarne and Reidun to get back on track. He meets a woman, with predictably disastrous consequences.
Am I supposed to, and did I in the past, find Elling's troubled and outré thoughts amusing? I'm not sure if this is the intention, but mostly I found them tedious. There is a certain melancholy here, true, which may have appealed to me in the past, but because of the lack of outside view or interaction that also somehow doesn't really work. I feel bad for Elling, sort of. But at the same time I also feel like of course he's always going to end up back where he started because there is nothing in the story that makes him evolve.
I genuinely enjoyed and liked the third book in the series when I re-read that earlier this year, but it seems to be an exception to the rule. Now the question becomes, do I make myself read book number 5 which I bought a few years ago on a visit home, remembering being a fan of this series? It's still unread in my bookshelf. I guess I should at least give it a try.
April 10, 2020
Ja, nå er jeg litt sliten. Den fjerde bok i dette meningsløse maratonn...hjelvit! Vet ikke om jeg fikk med meg alt, mulig den bør leses til en annen gang, men boken var god altså, likte at min bydel Grefsen ble nevnt en del, det er jo litt gøy.
June 15, 2019
Sven Nordin gir liv til fortellingen om Elling, på en særs behagelig måte. Nå gleder jeg meg så veldig til Ekko av en venn.
November 9, 2020
Var veldig usikker på hvor mange stjerner jeg skulle gi denne boken. Ambjørnsen gjør en god jobb i å vise hvordan Elling, som nå er mere overlatt til seg selv, blir dårligere og dårligere til sinns, men det gjør også boken mere krevende og tidvis slitsom å lese. De tankene og handlingene til Elling, som før fikk meg til å trekke litt på smilebåndet, blir gradvis mer ekstreme og alvorlige. Uansett så likte jeg de tidligere bøkene bedre, så det får bli tre stjerner.
August 2, 2019
Alle Elling-bøkene har tapt seg siden første gjennomlesning da de først kom ut, men denne mest. Mye pretensiøst tankespinn uten fremdrift.
July 28, 2019
Elsk meg i morgen is a brilliant book. I found a lot of it to be uncomfortable, sad, and stressful. I didn't enjoy much of it. And yet, it's fantastic.
This book takes the story of Elling to a new level, and, looking back, kind of a natural conclusion. Up until this point it has been very easy to be charmed by the character, feel with him, and treat his mental illness as a form of window that can be used to view the world in an unusual, but some times funny and thought-provoking way. Up until this point we've kind of been looking into Elling's world through a glass wall, and he has been looking out at the world through the same wall - observing the world, commenting on it, but always in a way where he has been protected from interacting with it in a way that could harm himself and others. In this book the wall is taken away.
The result is a page-turner. Not necessarily to find out what happened next, but just for the assurance that everything will be all right, in the knowledge that everything might not be all right. Elling has become an even less reliable narrator of his own life, and the way this is both stated and hinted at throughout the book sprinkles a constant tension of whether things are as good, or as bad, as they seem, or if things are actually worse. All of these events are coated in the knowledge that Elling isn't being dishonest: at times he just has a warped and misleading impression of what's going on around him, which adds to the feeling of desperation I got when reading this book.
Few books, if any, have agitated me as much as parts of this book did. I was uncomfortable, I felt stressed, and I was sad that the person in the centre of all this was Elling - a character that has become so likeable over the course of the three previous books. It's truly impressive how this is done without anything too far out of the ordinary happening - the story is essentially a story of someone who needs help, but doesn't know it. Yet this book had more of an impact on me than books where much worse things happen. My hands were shaking as I finished it, and that hasn't happened for a very long time.
I think any of the previous three Elling books could probably be read on their own, but for this book I would highly recommend reading the other three first. I don't think this book would have had anywhere close to the impact it had if the character of Elling wasn't so solidly built up prior to it. And if someone has read the three books prior to this, it wouldn't make any sense not to read this one. It feels like a fitting conclusion to the stories of Elling, which is why I'm very happy that the recent revival of the character has received such good reviews. Before reading this book I would have said that I look forward to seeing how Elling is doing. After having read this book I'm not sure whether I look forward to it any more, but there is no way I won't read the new book to find out.
This book takes the story of Elling to a new level, and, looking back, kind of a natural conclusion. Up until this point it has been very easy to be charmed by the character, feel with him, and treat his mental illness as a form of window that can be used to view the world in an unusual, but some times funny and thought-provoking way. Up until this point we've kind of been looking into Elling's world through a glass wall, and he has been looking out at the world through the same wall - observing the world, commenting on it, but always in a way where he has been protected from interacting with it in a way that could harm himself and others. In this book the wall is taken away.
The result is a page-turner. Not necessarily to find out what happened next, but just for the assurance that everything will be all right, in the knowledge that everything might not be all right. Elling has become an even less reliable narrator of his own life, and the way this is both stated and hinted at throughout the book sprinkles a constant tension of whether things are as good, or as bad, as they seem, or if things are actually worse. All of these events are coated in the knowledge that Elling isn't being dishonest: at times he just has a warped and misleading impression of what's going on around him, which adds to the feeling of desperation I got when reading this book.
Few books, if any, have agitated me as much as parts of this book did. I was uncomfortable, I felt stressed, and I was sad that the person in the centre of all this was Elling - a character that has become so likeable over the course of the three previous books. It's truly impressive how this is done without anything too far out of the ordinary happening - the story is essentially a story of someone who needs help, but doesn't know it. Yet this book had more of an impact on me than books where much worse things happen. My hands were shaking as I finished it, and that hasn't happened for a very long time.
I think any of the previous three Elling books could probably be read on their own, but for this book I would highly recommend reading the other three first. I don't think this book would have had anywhere close to the impact it had if the character of Elling wasn't so solidly built up prior to it. And if someone has read the three books prior to this, it wouldn't make any sense not to read this one. It feels like a fitting conclusion to the stories of Elling, which is why I'm very happy that the recent revival of the character has received such good reviews. Before reading this book I would have said that I look forward to seeing how Elling is doing. After having read this book I'm not sure whether I look forward to it any more, but there is no way I won't read the new book to find out.
April 15, 2019
Jeg elsker Ambjørnsen. Og jeg elsker måten han maner frem karakteren Elling. Det er en kunst han gjør, å vise frem et menneske så ustabilt, hovent og arrogant som Elling, og likevel lede leseren til å elske han. Ønske at andre mennesker ikke skal bli utsatt for han. Bekymre seg for ham.
Jeg vil anbefale alle å lese bøkene om Elling. Dette er av de bokseriene hvor det starter sterkt og avslutter fantastisk.
Jeg vil anbefale alle å lese bøkene om Elling. Dette er av de bokseriene hvor det starter sterkt og avslutter fantastisk.
July 28, 2019
Dette var, og er fremdeles, på langt nær en favoritt for meg i Elling-serien. Jeg synes alt blir litt for enkelt, både hvordan Elling kommer seg opp av rennesteinen, og hvordan kjærlighetslivet til både Elling og Kjell-Bjarne utvikler seg i løpet av romanen. Sånn sett skjønner jeg godt at det ikke ble flere Elling-romaner etter denne, altså frem til i år. Forhåpentligvis har det gått så mange år siden sist gang at sjansen for at vi fortsetter i samme tralten er ganske liten.
October 19, 2025
Elling er artig, men dette var ikke min favoritt. Her blir det rett og slett FOR mørkt og grisete. Jeg setter likevel pris på humoren og språket til Elling, og trekker på smilebåndet cirka hver åttende side.
November 18, 2018
Dette ble veldig mørkt, overraskende mørkt. Men jeg satte virkelig pris på dette dykket ned i mørket. Veldig godt skrevet!
Jeg gleder meg til den femte boka som Ambjørnsen sitter og skriver på!
Jeg gleder meg til den femte boka som Ambjørnsen sitter og skriver på!
August 4, 2021
Bøkene om Elling troner høyt på lista over favorittbøker.
December 5, 2022
Så bra og så trist.. Men for en bok og forsettelse på Elling.
February 23, 2025
Inne i hodet til Elling er stort sett et fornøyelig sted å være. Denne ble dog litt vel eksperimentell for min del.
June 3, 2008
Litt nedtur. Var ikke sånn det skulle gå, liksom!
Den er mørk som Utsikt til paradiset, men har ikke samme sjarmen i skildringen av endel av Ellings innbilte og virkelige ekspapader.
Den er mørk som Utsikt til paradiset, men har ikke samme sjarmen i skildringen av endel av Ellings innbilte og virkelige ekspapader.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews