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Something That Helps
From acclaimed Norwegian writer Mona Høvring comes Something That Helps, an intimate and stirring portrait of a girl's sexual awakening, of inner strength and the turbulence of family life, of friendship and loss.
Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable.
When Laura meets the older and more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter kickstarts a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge that push the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places—and eventually to the start of a new life.
Written in sensual, poetic prose and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps presents a multi-faceted coming-of-age story of a young woman following her own path to destruction and reconciliation.
Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable.
When Laura meets the older and more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter kickstarts a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge that push the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places—and eventually to the start of a new life.
Written in sensual, poetic prose and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps presents a multi-faceted coming-of-age story of a young woman following her own path to destruction and reconciliation.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Mona Høvring
16 books30 followersMona Høvring (f. 1962) debuterte i 1998 med diktsamlingen IIK! Ein dialog, og har siden utgitt en rekke kritikerroste romaner og diktsamlinger. I 2012 ble hun tildelt Språklig samlings litteraturpris for sitt forfatterskap. Romanen Camillas lange netter (2013) ble nominert til Nordisk Råds litteraturpris. I 2018 utkom Høvrings fjerde roman Fordi Venus passerte en alpefiol den dagen jeg blei født til strålende kritikker. For denne romanen ble Høvring tildelt Kritikerprisen 2018. Hun ble også nominert til Bokhandlerprisen samme år. Høvrings bøker er oversatt til flere språk, og nylig utkom Fordi Venus passerte en alpefiol den dagen jeg blei født på engelsk. Boka har også fått svært god mottakelse i blant annet Danmark og Tyskland. I 2021 ble Høvring tildelt Doblougprisen for hele sitt forfatterskap.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
June 29, 2021
Laura geht gerade in die erste Schulklasse einer kleinen Küstenstadt in Norwegen, als ihre Mutter ins Meer geht, mit einem schweren Stein in der Hand, und nie mehr zurückkehrt. Was bleibt sind ein großer Bruder, der unbedingt weg möchte und ein unnahbarer Vater. Für Laura beginnt eine lange Suche nach etwas, das helfen könnte, ihren Verlust etwas zu schmälern. Sie schließt Freundschaften, entdeckt ihre Sexualität und verliebt sich in das Meer - doch kann man sich von Trauer freischwimmen?
"Was helfen könnte" ist der Debütroman von Mona Høvring und ich habe ihn wirklich, wirklich gerne gelesen. Die Geschichte ist kurz, nur knapp 140 Seiten lang, trotzdem transportiert die Autorin mit ihren zarten und zugleich nüchternen Worten so viele Emotionen, dass ich mich schon sehr in dieses Buch verliebt habe.
Die Protagonistin Laura ist eigenwillig und stark, dabei aber auch so zerbrechlich - das mochte ich. Die Autorin lässt sie die Liebe in ganz unterschiedlichen Formen entdecken, sei es nun in der Freundschaft mit dem Gärtner Andreas und seiner Frau oder der sexuelle Begegnung mit der viele Jahre älteren eleganten und anziehenden Vivian.
Ich habe einfach etwas übrig für kurze Geschichten, die sich danach trotzdem mehr im Hirn festsetzen als lange Wälzer. Mona Høvring habe ich mit "Was helfen könnte" sehr ins Herz geschlossen - sowohl was den Schreibstil angeht, als auch die Ausgestaltung der Story betreffend. Verlust, Trauer, Liebe, Freundschaft, Sexualität und Naturverbundenheit gehen hier eine intensive Symbiose ein. Ich kann nur empfehlen, dieses kurze Buch zu lesen 🍐
"Was helfen könnte" ist der Debütroman von Mona Høvring und ich habe ihn wirklich, wirklich gerne gelesen. Die Geschichte ist kurz, nur knapp 140 Seiten lang, trotzdem transportiert die Autorin mit ihren zarten und zugleich nüchternen Worten so viele Emotionen, dass ich mich schon sehr in dieses Buch verliebt habe.
Die Protagonistin Laura ist eigenwillig und stark, dabei aber auch so zerbrechlich - das mochte ich. Die Autorin lässt sie die Liebe in ganz unterschiedlichen Formen entdecken, sei es nun in der Freundschaft mit dem Gärtner Andreas und seiner Frau oder der sexuelle Begegnung mit der viele Jahre älteren eleganten und anziehenden Vivian.
Ich habe einfach etwas übrig für kurze Geschichten, die sich danach trotzdem mehr im Hirn festsetzen als lange Wälzer. Mona Høvring habe ich mit "Was helfen könnte" sehr ins Herz geschlossen - sowohl was den Schreibstil angeht, als auch die Ausgestaltung der Story betreffend. Verlust, Trauer, Liebe, Freundschaft, Sexualität und Naturverbundenheit gehen hier eine intensive Symbiose ein. Ich kann nur empfehlen, dieses kurze Buch zu lesen 🍐
August 4, 2026
OH MY GOD
Thank you to the amazing Book*Hug Press for my galley!
Thank you to the amazing Book*Hug Press for my galley!
June 18, 2022
Teder, zinderend… zomerpareltje!
January 15, 2022
„Vielleicht lag es an all diesem Verkehrten und Missverstandenen, dass sie verschwinden wollte, vielleicht lag es daran, dass sie sich nicht mehr schützen konnte, dass es einfach nicht mehr möglich war.“ (S. 125)
.
In Lauras Erinnerung gibt es sie noch, die starke Frau, an die sie sich immer anschmiegen konnte um ihre Wärme zu spüren, doch im alltäglichen Leben fehlt die Mutter sehr. Sie geht ins Wasser, als Laura in der ersten Klasse ist und kommt nicht mehr zurück. Stattdessen muss sie sich alleine durchschlagen, weil der Vater unnahbar geworden und ihr Bruder mit den Gedanken schon gar nicht mehr zuhause ist. Lauras Erwachsenwerden ist ein Suchen und Finden. Ohne familiären Rückhalt macht sie ihren eigenen Weg, erlebt wahre Freundschaft, die ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen und erspürt ihre Bedürfnisse, als Mensch, als Frau, als Individuum. Der große Sinn des Lebens ist am Ende vielleicht doch im ganz kleinen Zufriedensein zu finden?
.
Mona Høvrings Debütroman „Was helfen könnte“ ist mit knapp 140 Seiten schnell erzählt, sein Nachklang allerdings, ist nicht zu unterschätzen und sickert ganz langsam und warm ins Gedächtnis. Die Autorin schafft durch klare, sanfte Töne eine zarte Intensität, die ihre Geschichte besonders macht. Gänzlich unaufgeregt und frei von jeder Benennung einer sexuellen Orientierung schreibt sie über das Erwachen von Laura, ihrem Zu-sich-Finden und gibt ihrer Protagonistin einen sicheren Raum um ihre Vorlieben auszuleben, sich auszuprobieren. Sie lässt Laura ihre Gefühle fühlen, wie sie kommen: Genuss, Angst, Frustration, Freude und zeigt, dass das Leben voller Möglichkeiten ist, die man annehmen oder ausschlagen kann. Ich habe mich beim Lesen sehr aufgehoben gefühlt und irgendwie verstanden.
Ein wundervoll zarter und ebenso sinnlicher Roman, der noch viel mehr Aufmerksamkeit verdient!
.
👉🏻aus dem Norwegischen von Ebba D. Drolshagen
.
In Lauras Erinnerung gibt es sie noch, die starke Frau, an die sie sich immer anschmiegen konnte um ihre Wärme zu spüren, doch im alltäglichen Leben fehlt die Mutter sehr. Sie geht ins Wasser, als Laura in der ersten Klasse ist und kommt nicht mehr zurück. Stattdessen muss sie sich alleine durchschlagen, weil der Vater unnahbar geworden und ihr Bruder mit den Gedanken schon gar nicht mehr zuhause ist. Lauras Erwachsenwerden ist ein Suchen und Finden. Ohne familiären Rückhalt macht sie ihren eigenen Weg, erlebt wahre Freundschaft, die ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen und erspürt ihre Bedürfnisse, als Mensch, als Frau, als Individuum. Der große Sinn des Lebens ist am Ende vielleicht doch im ganz kleinen Zufriedensein zu finden?
.
Mona Høvrings Debütroman „Was helfen könnte“ ist mit knapp 140 Seiten schnell erzählt, sein Nachklang allerdings, ist nicht zu unterschätzen und sickert ganz langsam und warm ins Gedächtnis. Die Autorin schafft durch klare, sanfte Töne eine zarte Intensität, die ihre Geschichte besonders macht. Gänzlich unaufgeregt und frei von jeder Benennung einer sexuellen Orientierung schreibt sie über das Erwachen von Laura, ihrem Zu-sich-Finden und gibt ihrer Protagonistin einen sicheren Raum um ihre Vorlieben auszuleben, sich auszuprobieren. Sie lässt Laura ihre Gefühle fühlen, wie sie kommen: Genuss, Angst, Frustration, Freude und zeigt, dass das Leben voller Möglichkeiten ist, die man annehmen oder ausschlagen kann. Ich habe mich beim Lesen sehr aufgehoben gefühlt und irgendwie verstanden.
Ein wundervoll zarter und ebenso sinnlicher Roman, der noch viel mehr Aufmerksamkeit verdient!
.
👉🏻aus dem Norwegischen von Ebba D. Drolshagen
August 15, 2022
Uitgeverij Oevers geeft boeken uit met een hart (naar eigen zeggen, en we geloven hen) en de focus op Scandinavië, maar bracht ons ook al moois uit andere landen: ze wisten ons al meermaals te verrassen en we volgen hun selectie gretig en met argusogen.
'Iets wat helpt' is hun tweede vertaling uit het oeuvre van Mona Hovring, de Noorse auteur die in Scandinavië al meermaals in de prijzen viel.
We krijgen het verhaal van Laura die in haar kinderjaren haar moeder verliest: die liep de zee in met een steen in haar handen en keerde nooit meer weer. Laura worstelt er zelf mee en de relatie met haar vader geraakt helemaal op een dood spoor.
Het boek vangt mooi, haast poëtisch aan, waardoor je als lezer het drama mee draagt, maar het boek niet loodzwaar binnenkomt.
Nadien volgen we het emotionele en seksuele ontluiken van Laura tijdens haar tienerjaren en - hoewel het boek dan nog steeds vol mooie passages staat - voelt het allemaal wat minder dichtbij. Laura valt voor oudere vrouwen (is dat de zoektocht naar een substituut moeder?) geraakt alsnog in de ban van de zoon van één van de vrouwen die haar verleidde, en lijkt uiteindelijk op haar eigen drama af te stevenen.
Zo beloftevol het boek aanving, zo onthecht geraakten we later. Het leek plots allemaal wat afstandelijk, in elkaar gepuzzeld en beladen met wat (te) eenvoudige symboliek.
Misschien zijn wat streng, maar dit had mooier kunnen zijn. Edoch: met plezier gelezen hoor.
'Iets wat helpt' is hun tweede vertaling uit het oeuvre van Mona Hovring, de Noorse auteur die in Scandinavië al meermaals in de prijzen viel.
We krijgen het verhaal van Laura die in haar kinderjaren haar moeder verliest: die liep de zee in met een steen in haar handen en keerde nooit meer weer. Laura worstelt er zelf mee en de relatie met haar vader geraakt helemaal op een dood spoor.
Het boek vangt mooi, haast poëtisch aan, waardoor je als lezer het drama mee draagt, maar het boek niet loodzwaar binnenkomt.
Nadien volgen we het emotionele en seksuele ontluiken van Laura tijdens haar tienerjaren en - hoewel het boek dan nog steeds vol mooie passages staat - voelt het allemaal wat minder dichtbij. Laura valt voor oudere vrouwen (is dat de zoektocht naar een substituut moeder?) geraakt alsnog in de ban van de zoon van één van de vrouwen die haar verleidde, en lijkt uiteindelijk op haar eigen drama af te stevenen.
Zo beloftevol het boek aanving, zo onthecht geraakten we later. Het leek plots allemaal wat afstandelijk, in elkaar gepuzzeld en beladen met wat (te) eenvoudige symboliek.
Misschien zijn wat streng, maar dit had mooier kunnen zijn. Edoch: met plezier gelezen hoor.
July 2, 2022
Ik lees Høvring graag. De eenvoudige zinnen die zoveel lagen hebben. Hoe ze de sfeer eerst uitbeent en weer vlees aan hangt. En ze je er dan mee omwentelt met zachte woorden die soms hard aankomen. Maar altijd met mededogen.
December 11, 2022
Na een sterk en poëtisch begin gaat het verhaal te veel verschillende kanten uit, zonder echt iets te willen vertellen. Mooi en spaarzaam geschreven, maar het plot blijft mijns inzien te nietszeggend - dit is geen verhaal dat zal blijven hangen.
August 10, 2022
Ik kon mij niet van de indruk ontdoen dat dit boekje als zeer genre-beantwoordend en conventioneel overkomt. Ik bedoel maar, een meisje dat haar eerste seksuele ervaring met een andere vrouw heeft, dan toch voor een jongen gaat, de vertwijfeling van de jeugd, de rebelsheid,... het heeft allemaal een heel hoog kostschoolromangehalte.
Een zomerboekje dat vlot leest, al zal het mij niet meteen bijblijven.
Een zomerboekje dat vlot leest, al zal het mij niet meteen bijblijven.
Review of advance copy received from Author
In Something That Helps, acclaimed Norwegian writer Mona Høvring offers an intimate and gripping portrait of a young woman poised between childhood and adulthood, where sexual awakening, grief and the turbulence of family life converge. Laura is in her late teens, spending the summer before her final year of school in a small coastal town in western Norway. A setting of shorelines, this oceanic and wet environment is an extension of Laura’s life events and body.
Her mother’s suicide has left an absence that quakes open a wound in Laura’s life. Her relationship with her fisherman father is strained and her brother and closest friend have both moved away. Adrift and without the guidance she once might have relied upon, Laura is at once fiercely independent and profoundly vulnerable, attempting to construct an identity from the fragments of a family marked by loss.
The plot takes a decisive turn when Laura encounters Vivian Koller, an older and more experienced woman whose presence initiates a series of events that will alter the course of her young life.
Høvring crafts a complex and contradictory awakening in Laura. She is simultaneously childlike and prematurely adult, curious and naïve, self-determined and susceptible to forces she does not yet understand. Desire becomes a terrain of education and not necessarily a safe one. External influences and an internal darkness converge and propel Laura toward increasingly hostile territory. The novel’s coastal landscape becomes inseparable from this emotional turbulence. Laura tests limits, her ice-water plunges become symbolism for freedom and danger. Independence is thorned with desire.
Written in sensual prose and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps is ultimately a complex coming-of-age story about the painful construction of selfhood. Høvring, whose work frequently explores young women searching for identity and a place within the world, refuses the neatness of conventional narratives of maturation. Many times, the novel shifted into the sublime.
Norwegian author Mona Høvring, born in 1962, has built an acclaimed literary career across poetry and fiction. Her first collection, IIK! Ein dialog, published in 1988, precluded six poetry collections and four novels. Høvring’s fiction is marked by a distinctive literary voice that has earned both critical and institutional recognition. In 2012, she received the Språklig samlings ‘litteraturpris’ for her body of work, while her novel Camillas lange netter (2013) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Her fourth novel, Fordi Venus passerte en alpefiol den dagen jeg blei født (2018), received the Norwegian Critics’ Prize for Literature and was also nominated for the Booksellers’ Prize. Høvring’s work has since been translated into several languages, extending her reputation beyond Norway, and she received the Dobloug Prize in 2021 for her overall literary contribution.
Two of Høvring’s novels have been translated into English by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps and Because Venus Crossed an Alpine Violet on the Day That I Was Born, bringing her work to a wider English-language readership. The international reception of the latter has been particularly strong, with the novel receiving attention in Denmark and Germany as well as in its English translation.
Kari Dickson is a Norwegian-Scots literary translator whose career has been devoted to carrying Norwegian literature across the linguistic border into English. Born in Edinburgh and raised bilingually, Dickson studied Scandinavian Studies at University College London before earning an MA in Translation from the University of Surrey. Her route into literary translation began through theatre, where she produced literal translations of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea and Hedda Gabler, before moving from commercial translation into literature. Her extensive body of work encompasses literary and crime fiction, children’s literature, theatre, nonfiction, and poetry. She has translated writers including Rune Christiansen, Erika Fatland, Karin Fossum, Thomas Enger and Gunnhild Øyehaug. Her translation of Roslund & Hellström’s Three Seconds received the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger, while her work has also earned recognition through the National Book Award longlist.
I was drawn to how Laura observed and felt the world around her, yet, as the novel progressed, I realized this microscopic lens of the texture of her world was a reflection of the depression consuming the young woman. “I was suddenly acutely aware of all the small details, the mundane moments.” These small details are recorded, the world becomes vivid. “When I cycled home, it was still morning and our little town was coming to life. The air was full of smells: sun-warmed asphalt, fresh bread, and raw meat, and some of the open windows I caught the aroma of tobacco and freshly brewed coffee.” As much as the protagonist careened quietly into a downward spiral, the texture of the Norwegian setting was rich and alluring.
The details surrounding the mother’s suicide imprinted upon me too as a reader. “I remembered something that had happened when I was five or six. I was standing nake on the sand and watching my mother make a fire pit by the shore. We’d found a spot that was sheltered from the wind, but I was still cold and shivering so much that my teeth were chattering. When my mother had managed to light the fire, she stood up. ‘My little sea thrift,’ she said. ‘Tremble, tremble.’”I could hear this ‘tremble, tremble.’ I felt quietly disturbed knowing this commentary reflected something more painful.
“‘Tremble, tremble,’ she said again, and then she started to rub my body, and that was when I saw her skeleton through everything else, through all that was round and soft, through her jellyfish-pink skin, through the muscles that resembled lumpy roots, blood vessels that looked like bluish-purple rivers, the multi-armed sinews: frozen greyish-white branches, lungs that made me think of seaweed and kelp, sea grass, bioluminescent shimmering hair, tiny, tiny shells that hung on long peach-coloured threads. Ripple, rustle, I heard from inside her, but I didn’t tell her what I saw, because I didn’t want her to worry. Instead I closed my eyes and she started to sing, and her voice was clear and warm.”
Ripple. Rustle. Like the pages that turned and I read through suspenseful in wondering, what becomes of them?
The way these women melted into the oceanic world around them left nightmares and wondering in my head of the vivid descriptive language, that is simultaneously alluring as it is haunting.
“I often thought it must be nice to die as my mother had done, to wander along the beach, to walk in the clear air, to move out into the water with a heavy stone in your hands, to hold on to it with a passion and allow yourself to sink down into a natural grave, to give up your breath and perhaps see wonderful things from the seabed: fish and starfish and the sunlight glittering and breaking through the surface. And at other times, I didn’t think that at all. I almost couldn’t breathe. Then I thought it was a shame that I hadn’t got to know my mother better. There was so much I wanted to ask her, so much I wanted to tell.”
The reality that this woman would have not responded in the instinctual way of life, to let go of the stone, to resist or not contain the natural bodily responses to drowning as she should have done, reflects the immensity of disparity and mental health subtly propelling the plot of this novel.
An expressive coming-of-age story exploring queer sexual awakening, complicated relationships and the moments that leave behind soulful fingerprints, Something that Helps is an unforgettable novel. Despite its short length, this novel leaves a lasting impression and tells a story beyond the perimeters of its own pages.
Thank you to Mona Høvring, Kari Dickson, Bookhug Press and River Street Writing for a complimentary copy in request for an honest review.
https://www.sarahailstone.com/book-re...
Her mother’s suicide has left an absence that quakes open a wound in Laura’s life. Her relationship with her fisherman father is strained and her brother and closest friend have both moved away. Adrift and without the guidance she once might have relied upon, Laura is at once fiercely independent and profoundly vulnerable, attempting to construct an identity from the fragments of a family marked by loss.
The plot takes a decisive turn when Laura encounters Vivian Koller, an older and more experienced woman whose presence initiates a series of events that will alter the course of her young life.
Høvring crafts a complex and contradictory awakening in Laura. She is simultaneously childlike and prematurely adult, curious and naïve, self-determined and susceptible to forces she does not yet understand. Desire becomes a terrain of education and not necessarily a safe one. External influences and an internal darkness converge and propel Laura toward increasingly hostile territory. The novel’s coastal landscape becomes inseparable from this emotional turbulence. Laura tests limits, her ice-water plunges become symbolism for freedom and danger. Independence is thorned with desire.
Written in sensual prose and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps is ultimately a complex coming-of-age story about the painful construction of selfhood. Høvring, whose work frequently explores young women searching for identity and a place within the world, refuses the neatness of conventional narratives of maturation. Many times, the novel shifted into the sublime.
Norwegian author Mona Høvring, born in 1962, has built an acclaimed literary career across poetry and fiction. Her first collection, IIK! Ein dialog, published in 1988, precluded six poetry collections and four novels. Høvring’s fiction is marked by a distinctive literary voice that has earned both critical and institutional recognition. In 2012, she received the Språklig samlings ‘litteraturpris’ for her body of work, while her novel Camillas lange netter (2013) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Her fourth novel, Fordi Venus passerte en alpefiol den dagen jeg blei født (2018), received the Norwegian Critics’ Prize for Literature and was also nominated for the Booksellers’ Prize. Høvring’s work has since been translated into several languages, extending her reputation beyond Norway, and she received the Dobloug Prize in 2021 for her overall literary contribution.
Two of Høvring’s novels have been translated into English by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps and Because Venus Crossed an Alpine Violet on the Day That I Was Born, bringing her work to a wider English-language readership. The international reception of the latter has been particularly strong, with the novel receiving attention in Denmark and Germany as well as in its English translation.
Kari Dickson is a Norwegian-Scots literary translator whose career has been devoted to carrying Norwegian literature across the linguistic border into English. Born in Edinburgh and raised bilingually, Dickson studied Scandinavian Studies at University College London before earning an MA in Translation from the University of Surrey. Her route into literary translation began through theatre, where she produced literal translations of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea and Hedda Gabler, before moving from commercial translation into literature. Her extensive body of work encompasses literary and crime fiction, children’s literature, theatre, nonfiction, and poetry. She has translated writers including Rune Christiansen, Erika Fatland, Karin Fossum, Thomas Enger and Gunnhild Øyehaug. Her translation of Roslund & Hellström’s Three Seconds received the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger, while her work has also earned recognition through the National Book Award longlist.
I was drawn to how Laura observed and felt the world around her, yet, as the novel progressed, I realized this microscopic lens of the texture of her world was a reflection of the depression consuming the young woman. “I was suddenly acutely aware of all the small details, the mundane moments.” These small details are recorded, the world becomes vivid. “When I cycled home, it was still morning and our little town was coming to life. The air was full of smells: sun-warmed asphalt, fresh bread, and raw meat, and some of the open windows I caught the aroma of tobacco and freshly brewed coffee.” As much as the protagonist careened quietly into a downward spiral, the texture of the Norwegian setting was rich and alluring.
The details surrounding the mother’s suicide imprinted upon me too as a reader. “I remembered something that had happened when I was five or six. I was standing nake on the sand and watching my mother make a fire pit by the shore. We’d found a spot that was sheltered from the wind, but I was still cold and shivering so much that my teeth were chattering. When my mother had managed to light the fire, she stood up. ‘My little sea thrift,’ she said. ‘Tremble, tremble.’”I could hear this ‘tremble, tremble.’ I felt quietly disturbed knowing this commentary reflected something more painful.
“‘Tremble, tremble,’ she said again, and then she started to rub my body, and that was when I saw her skeleton through everything else, through all that was round and soft, through her jellyfish-pink skin, through the muscles that resembled lumpy roots, blood vessels that looked like bluish-purple rivers, the multi-armed sinews: frozen greyish-white branches, lungs that made me think of seaweed and kelp, sea grass, bioluminescent shimmering hair, tiny, tiny shells that hung on long peach-coloured threads. Ripple, rustle, I heard from inside her, but I didn’t tell her what I saw, because I didn’t want her to worry. Instead I closed my eyes and she started to sing, and her voice was clear and warm.”
Ripple. Rustle. Like the pages that turned and I read through suspenseful in wondering, what becomes of them?
The way these women melted into the oceanic world around them left nightmares and wondering in my head of the vivid descriptive language, that is simultaneously alluring as it is haunting.
“I often thought it must be nice to die as my mother had done, to wander along the beach, to walk in the clear air, to move out into the water with a heavy stone in your hands, to hold on to it with a passion and allow yourself to sink down into a natural grave, to give up your breath and perhaps see wonderful things from the seabed: fish and starfish and the sunlight glittering and breaking through the surface. And at other times, I didn’t think that at all. I almost couldn’t breathe. Then I thought it was a shame that I hadn’t got to know my mother better. There was so much I wanted to ask her, so much I wanted to tell.”
The reality that this woman would have not responded in the instinctual way of life, to let go of the stone, to resist or not contain the natural bodily responses to drowning as she should have done, reflects the immensity of disparity and mental health subtly propelling the plot of this novel.
An expressive coming-of-age story exploring queer sexual awakening, complicated relationships and the moments that leave behind soulful fingerprints, Something that Helps is an unforgettable novel. Despite its short length, this novel leaves a lasting impression and tells a story beyond the perimeters of its own pages.
Thank you to Mona Høvring, Kari Dickson, Bookhug Press and River Street Writing for a complimentary copy in request for an honest review.
https://www.sarahailstone.com/book-re...
August 14, 2019
Så meget kvalitet i så lille en bog. Så fint, sårbart, genkendeligt og følelsladet indhold skrevet på så uproblematisk, underspillet og ærlig en måde. Sad tilbage med den der nostalgifølelse hvor man både er lykkelig, sorgfuld og længselsfuld på samme tid.
Min største anbefaling herfra!
Min største anbefaling herfra!
November 1, 2026
A lovely novella of a motherless girl’s childhood and coming of age.
I really enjoyed this. The main character displays a mix unselfconsciousness and self-awareness, of maturity and childishness that makes her both believable and likeable. Her response to the loss of those close to her was nuanced. I liked the fact that her sexual awakening was filled with contradiction and uncertainty, because that lived experience often is filled with uncertainty and contradiction. I appreciated the matter-of-fact tone. Laura holds a lot of her emotions inside herself, and the writing expects its reader to be intelligent enough to figure them out. I like that in a book. The writing is lovely. It has the kind of clean clarity that the air has near the sea, which befits the setting on the Norwegian coast.
There are a few things left hanging that I’d like to have known more about, but that would have required a longer book—and to be honest, I might not have picked up a longer book told in first person by a teenager.
I would gladly read other work by Høvring.
My thanks to Literary Press Group of Canada/| Book*hug Press and NetGalley for an advance digital copy.
I really enjoyed this. The main character displays a mix unselfconsciousness and self-awareness, of maturity and childishness that makes her both believable and likeable. Her response to the loss of those close to her was nuanced. I liked the fact that her sexual awakening was filled with contradiction and uncertainty, because that lived experience often is filled with uncertainty and contradiction. I appreciated the matter-of-fact tone. Laura holds a lot of her emotions inside herself, and the writing expects its reader to be intelligent enough to figure them out. I like that in a book. The writing is lovely. It has the kind of clean clarity that the air has near the sea, which befits the setting on the Norwegian coast.
There are a few things left hanging that I’d like to have known more about, but that would have required a longer book—and to be honest, I might not have picked up a longer book told in first person by a teenager.
I would gladly read other work by Høvring.
My thanks to Literary Press Group of Canada/| Book*hug Press and NetGalley for an advance digital copy.
October 8, 2026
Something That Helps by Mona Hovring
Translated by Kari Dickson
This is a poignant coming of age novel told in beautiful, lyrical prose that showcases Hovring’s poetic writing skill.
This is an intimate portrait of a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, marked by the suicide of her mother and a father who is emotionally absent, she describes herself as “numb is what I was, numb from loneliness. The thought struck me that I had been all alone in the world.”
Laura’s yearning for connection leaves her vulnerable when she meets an older woman and engages in her first sexual encounter. This is further complicated by the woman’s son also being interested in her.
Hovring vividly captures Laura’s complexity and contradictions: her confidence and naivety, her anxiety and independence, loneliness and longing. Her relationship to the sea that drowned her mother is both soulful and painful, a source of healing as well as grief. A short melancholy book that will leave a lasting impression.
Translated by Kari Dickson
This is a poignant coming of age novel told in beautiful, lyrical prose that showcases Hovring’s poetic writing skill.
This is an intimate portrait of a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, marked by the suicide of her mother and a father who is emotionally absent, she describes herself as “numb is what I was, numb from loneliness. The thought struck me that I had been all alone in the world.”
Laura’s yearning for connection leaves her vulnerable when she meets an older woman and engages in her first sexual encounter. This is further complicated by the woman’s son also being interested in her.
Hovring vividly captures Laura’s complexity and contradictions: her confidence and naivety, her anxiety and independence, loneliness and longing. Her relationship to the sea that drowned her mother is both soulful and painful, a source of healing as well as grief. A short melancholy book that will leave a lasting impression.
October 27, 2024
2,5 ster
Verhaal over een meisje wiens moeder al snel uit haar leven verdwijnt, ze verdrinkt in de zee, haar vader is een in zichzelf gekeerde man.
Wat ik jammer vond is dat er zo weinig diepgang in de personages zit. Het verhaal is erg eendimensionaal. Daar door is het een beetje een “ en toen en toen” boek geworden. Op de een of andere manier wilde ik wel steeds verder lezen, maar is dit geen boek dat mij zal bijblijven.
Verhaal over een meisje wiens moeder al snel uit haar leven verdwijnt, ze verdrinkt in de zee, haar vader is een in zichzelf gekeerde man.
Wat ik jammer vond is dat er zo weinig diepgang in de personages zit. Het verhaal is erg eendimensionaal. Daar door is het een beetje een “ en toen en toen” boek geworden. Op de een of andere manier wilde ik wel steeds verder lezen, maar is dit geen boek dat mij zal bijblijven.
March 16, 2024
Een ‘coming of age’ verhaal van een Noors meisje. Bijzonder omstandigheden zijn dat haar moeder zichzelf van het leven beroofde toen ze nog jong was. Haar vader is óf afwezig óf bekommerd zich niet om haar. Dat maakt haar zoekend naar liefde en aandacht die ze eigenlijk niet echt vindt niet bij vrouwen en niet bij mannen. Uiteindelijk leidt dat tot haar wanhoopsdaad.
Het geeft een mooie inkijk in de herkenbare Noorse cultuur en het verhaal wordt extra boeiend gemaakt door veel details over haar handelingen en haar gedachten. Zat te twijfelen tussen vier en vijf sterren. Uiteindelijk kan ik er toch geen topper van maken maar ik heb wel genoten van dit bijzondere verhaal.
Het geeft een mooie inkijk in de herkenbare Noorse cultuur en het verhaal wordt extra boeiend gemaakt door veel details over haar handelingen en haar gedachten. Zat te twijfelen tussen vier en vijf sterren. Uiteindelijk kan ik er toch geen topper van maken maar ik heb wel genoten van dit bijzondere verhaal.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2025
Wat er staat, is heel mooi. Prachtige zinnen en een sfeer die blijft hangen. Maar vanaf het begin heb ik het gevoel dat er pagina’s missen. Het is te vluchtig, te gefragmenteerd, waardoor het diepte mist. Nu voelt het toch een beetje als een aantal tropes aan elkaar geregen. Maar dit is haar debuut, dus wie weet is dit bij haar andere boeken anders.
July 29, 2022
Wat een pareltje - 'tje' omdat het 'maar' een 140 pagina's telt, niet om de wervelende, heldere, eerlijke,intense en toch meditatieve vertelling. In razend tempo en niet weg te leggen. Alle elementen zijn aanwezig - vuur, water, aarde en lucht.
Inderdaad een samensmelting van De Glazen Stolp van SP en Bonjour Tristesse van FS.
De beleving van een jeugd - zo vertrouwd, zo raak beschreven...
Meer dan een aanrader, veel meer... Gewoonweg lezen!
Inderdaad een samensmelting van De Glazen Stolp van SP en Bonjour Tristesse van FS.
De beleving van een jeugd - zo vertrouwd, zo raak beschreven...
Meer dan een aanrader, veel meer... Gewoonweg lezen!
January 17, 2023
‘Als we zo liepen, voelde ik soms heel even dat ik over mijn eigen lichaam heerste. Af en toe betrapte ik mezelf er zelfs op dat ik dacht dat alles eenvoudig was.’
November 10, 2024
Fijn en intrigerend boek. In 2 zittingen uitgelezen, het was erg makkelijk lezen.
August 6, 2026
Liebs
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
|| SOMETHING THAT HELPS ||
#gifted @bookhugpress
#translatedlit
•
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A wonderfully translated coming of age story about the blurred lines between teenage and adulthood. About being vulnerable and lonely. I enjoyed Laura's character a lot and her journey. Høvring's prose were perfect. I absolutely loved this cover art too, so striking!
•
~ Book Description ~
Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable. When Laura meets the older, more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter sets in motion a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge, pushing the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places—and eventually toward the start of a new life.
#gifted @bookhugpress
#translatedlit
•
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A wonderfully translated coming of age story about the blurred lines between teenage and adulthood. About being vulnerable and lonely. I enjoyed Laura's character a lot and her journey. Høvring's prose were perfect. I absolutely loved this cover art too, so striking!
•
~ Book Description ~
Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable. When Laura meets the older, more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter sets in motion a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge, pushing the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places—and eventually toward the start of a new life.
November 12, 2017
Mona Høvring har været endnu et herligt norsk bekendtskab at stifte, de kan altså noget, de nordmænd. Men jeg må desværre sige, at jeg blev en anelse skuffet alligevel, for trods det vidunderlige sprog og de herlige sætninger, må jeg nok erkende, at jeg sidder tilbage med en følelse af, at jeg formentlig ikke kommer til at tage historien med mig, desuden, at jeg faktisk ikke forstår den til bunds, ikke engang de væsentligste aspekter. Jeg er helt med på, at den i store træk beskriver en ung kvindes søgen efter sin seksualitet, men både i og uden for den søgen, er der lidt for mange mærkværdigheder efter min smag. Måske den ville have åbnet sig mere for mig, hvis jeg havde nogle at dele den med, hvis jeg kunne have diskuteret i fx en læseklub. Det er ikke umuligt, at jeg kunne finde på at læse den igen, i håbet om, at den ville give mig mere anden gang, men her i første omgang kan det ikke blive til mere end 3 stjerner, desværre. Men jeg vil bestemt gerne læse mere Høvring.
October 5, 2023
3,5⭐️ przez większą część książki bardzo mi się ona podobała, ale kończąc ją stwierdziłam, że trochę mi czegoś tam brakuje. jednak wciąż bardzo ciekawa historia
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
(This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy provided by NetGalley.)
I’m not a plot-driven reader, I’m happy to read a slice-of-life book if the character work is interesting, but this book didn’t really do it for me.
Not much happens, and the things that do happen don’t feel like they amount to anything. It’s one of those books that just…ends…rather than having anything that feels like an ending. It’s not that I need everything to be neatly tied in a bow—there are books I love that leave a lot open to interpretation—but this book mostly just left me feeling “So what?”
None of the characters feel very fleshed out, and the main character is very emotionally opaque, which can work (The English Understand Wool does it well, for example), but I just didn’t find any of the characters terribly interesting.
The publisher comps the book to Call Me By Your Name, but it's only superficially similar (teenager in Europe has an affair with an older person of the same sex). This book doesn't capture the yearning or obsession of CMBYN. It reminded me more of We Do What We Do in the Dark, though I found that book much more compelling than this one.
Rep: Main character is a Norwegian teen girl. No sexual orientation labels are used, but I would describe her as bisexual, as she seems to be attracted to men and women.
Content notes: Loss of a parent to suicide. Sexual relationship between a high school student and a woman old enough to be her mother. Moderately explicit sex scenes. Vomiting.
I’m not a plot-driven reader, I’m happy to read a slice-of-life book if the character work is interesting, but this book didn’t really do it for me.
Not much happens, and the things that do happen don’t feel like they amount to anything. It’s one of those books that just…ends…rather than having anything that feels like an ending. It’s not that I need everything to be neatly tied in a bow—there are books I love that leave a lot open to interpretation—but this book mostly just left me feeling “So what?”
None of the characters feel very fleshed out, and the main character is very emotionally opaque, which can work (The English Understand Wool does it well, for example), but I just didn’t find any of the characters terribly interesting.
The publisher comps the book to Call Me By Your Name, but it's only superficially similar (teenager in Europe has an affair with an older person of the same sex). This book doesn't capture the yearning or obsession of CMBYN. It reminded me more of We Do What We Do in the Dark, though I found that book much more compelling than this one.
Rep: Main character is a Norwegian teen girl. No sexual orientation labels are used, but I would describe her as bisexual, as she seems to be attracted to men and women.
Content notes: Loss of a parent to suicide. Sexual relationship between a high school student and a woman old enough to be her mother. Moderately explicit sex scenes. Vomiting.
July 15, 2022
Iets wat helpt is een verhaal over heimwee en gemis, door de ik figuur Laura..
Het is het romandebuut van Mona Høvring, een Noorse schrijfster. Het boek kwam al in 2004 uit maar is nu pas in het Nederlands vertaald. Høvring schreef eerder poëzie.
"Mona Høvrings veelgeprezen debuut werd in de Noorse pers vergeleken met oa De glazen stolp van Sylvia Plath, niet alleen vanwege de smeulende duisternis in het licht, de zinnelijkheid en veerkracht van de jeugd, maar ook vanwege Høvrings
heldere, tedere proza en voortreffelijke gevoel voor scènes".
Laura’s moeder liep de zee in met een grote steen in haar handen en kwam niet terug. Naar haar beweegredenen kunnen we slechts gissen..
Laura is dan zes, heeft een oudere broer en een vader die nogal in zichzelf lijkt gekeerd en als visser vaak weg is.
Het is ook een verhaal over eenzaamheid en je weg zoeken in het leven. Verlangend naar (moeder)liefde.. maar ook ontluikende sensuele liefde.. Ze vindt een moederfiguur in de moeder van haar vriendin Marie. Ze gaan elke week gedrieën zwemmen.. Later ontmoet ze Vivian, de nieuwe kapster.
"Ik ging aan het kleine tafeltje zitten, pakte een tijdschrift en bladerde erin terwijl ik af en toe stiekem naar de kapster keek. Ze bewoog zich langzaam en soepel, en haar lichaam bolde op tegen de gesteven stof. Ik vond dat ze op een godin leek"
Tuinman Andreas en zijn vrouw Johanna zijn misschien wel de meest vaste punten in haar leven.
Het is een prettig geschreven verhaal in vrij korte hoofdstukken die mooi op elkaar aansluiten. We volgen Laura in haar ontwikkeling tot ze gaat studeren. Ik heb het idee dat ik haar goed heb leren kennen.. en zou zo graag weten hoe het verder met haar is gegaan.. 😊
Ik las het boek (143 bladzijden slechts) 2 keer achter elkaar.. Niet omdat het ingewikkeld is, juist niet..
De tweede keer kwam het dieper binnen. Kan zijn dat ik aandachtiger las.. Het raakte me.
Het is het romandebuut van Mona Høvring, een Noorse schrijfster. Het boek kwam al in 2004 uit maar is nu pas in het Nederlands vertaald. Høvring schreef eerder poëzie.
"Mona Høvrings veelgeprezen debuut werd in de Noorse pers vergeleken met oa De glazen stolp van Sylvia Plath, niet alleen vanwege de smeulende duisternis in het licht, de zinnelijkheid en veerkracht van de jeugd, maar ook vanwege Høvrings
heldere, tedere proza en voortreffelijke gevoel voor scènes".
Laura’s moeder liep de zee in met een grote steen in haar handen en kwam niet terug. Naar haar beweegredenen kunnen we slechts gissen..
Laura is dan zes, heeft een oudere broer en een vader die nogal in zichzelf lijkt gekeerd en als visser vaak weg is.
Het is ook een verhaal over eenzaamheid en je weg zoeken in het leven. Verlangend naar (moeder)liefde.. maar ook ontluikende sensuele liefde.. Ze vindt een moederfiguur in de moeder van haar vriendin Marie. Ze gaan elke week gedrieën zwemmen.. Later ontmoet ze Vivian, de nieuwe kapster.
"Ik ging aan het kleine tafeltje zitten, pakte een tijdschrift en bladerde erin terwijl ik af en toe stiekem naar de kapster keek. Ze bewoog zich langzaam en soepel, en haar lichaam bolde op tegen de gesteven stof. Ik vond dat ze op een godin leek"
Tuinman Andreas en zijn vrouw Johanna zijn misschien wel de meest vaste punten in haar leven.
Het is een prettig geschreven verhaal in vrij korte hoofdstukken die mooi op elkaar aansluiten. We volgen Laura in haar ontwikkeling tot ze gaat studeren. Ik heb het idee dat ik haar goed heb leren kennen.. en zou zo graag weten hoe het verder met haar is gegaan.. 😊
Ik las het boek (143 bladzijden slechts) 2 keer achter elkaar.. Niet omdat het ingewikkeld is, juist niet..
De tweede keer kwam het dieper binnen. Kan zijn dat ik aandachtiger las.. Het raakte me.
October 13, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Something That Helps follows Laura in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide, unfolding through brief vignettes that explore grief, sexual awakening, and a search for deeper understanding of herself and the world around her. Laura’s encounters with the more worldly Vivian Koller, alongside her relationships with her father, brother, and the family’s gardener, give shape to her ongoing search for connection.
There’s a lot to admire about Høvring’s writing and that’s where I found the most beauty of this book. The prose is vivid, the Norwegian coastal setting is evocative and full of sensory details.
Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting to the novel as a whole. I’m not the kind of reader who needs plot-heavy stories to stay engaged, but the story felt too detached and abstract for me to sink into. There are some interesting ideas and encounters and scenes unfolding, but we move so quickly through them that they seemed disjointed rather than one solid through line. While I love a coming of age novel, I did feel this one skimmed over some of the more interesting concepts where I wanted it to linger. Most of the novel left me feeling like more like a bystander on the periphery rather than anchored to the story.
Something That Helps follows Laura in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide, unfolding through brief vignettes that explore grief, sexual awakening, and a search for deeper understanding of herself and the world around her. Laura’s encounters with the more worldly Vivian Koller, alongside her relationships with her father, brother, and the family’s gardener, give shape to her ongoing search for connection.
There’s a lot to admire about Høvring’s writing and that’s where I found the most beauty of this book. The prose is vivid, the Norwegian coastal setting is evocative and full of sensory details.
Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting to the novel as a whole. I’m not the kind of reader who needs plot-heavy stories to stay engaged, but the story felt too detached and abstract for me to sink into. There are some interesting ideas and encounters and scenes unfolding, but we move so quickly through them that they seemed disjointed rather than one solid through line. While I love a coming of age novel, I did feel this one skimmed over some of the more interesting concepts where I wanted it to linger. Most of the novel left me feeling like more like a bystander on the periphery rather than anchored to the story.
March 7, 2023
Tussen een verdronken moeder en de wens om via lust en liefde naar geborgenheid toe te zwemmen. In 'Iets wat helpt' (2004) probeert tienermeisje Laura vat te krijgen op haar emoties wanneer haar moeder zelfmoord heeft gepleegd en haar vader vooral zelf weg probeert te komen van zijn eigen verdriet. Tijdens haar vaders talrijke vistochten doolt ze stuurloos rond, zoekend naar een basisgevoel van veiligheid. Vanuit het besef dat er niemand écht op haar wacht als ze thuiskomt. Daarnaast heeft ze verwarrende en tegenstrijdige gevoelens naar zowel mannen als vrouwen. Haar zwervende zoektocht brengt Laura in wrijvende liefdes- en vriendschapsrelaties, zelfs volwassenen hebben niet altijd door hoe kwetsbaar zij eigenlijk is. Mogelijk misbruik ligt steeds opnieuw op de loer. Het aardige aan 'Iets wat helpt' (2004) is dat Mona Høvring met haar kernachtige stijl dichtbij de overlap blijft tussen Laura's trauma en haar seksualiteit. Ze krijgt psychologisch cachet als een autonoom denkend iemand die zelf (schadelijke) verlangens probeert te stillen. Al is het werkje met haar 143 pagina's wel erg summier om verhoudingen met dorpsgenoten diepgang te geven.
October 18, 2026
Thanks to Literary Press Group of Canada and Netgalley for this e-ARC! I absolutely tore through this teeny tiny gem and loved every minute of it! It's sort of giving a blend of The Bell Jar / Call Me by Your Name / The Guest / The Safekeep / Portrait of a Lady on Fire -- except way vibier and looser than any of those, so I can't think of quite the right comparison. Time just flows and scenes bleed into each other and there are skips ahead that take you by surprise and where it takes a minute to get your feet under you in a way I found very effective. The writing was spare and yet extremely evocative, and it felt simultaneously slow -- in that there isn't a huge amount of "action" -- and like the whirlwind of growing up too fast and feeling utterly lost in the world. I'll definitely be looking for more Mona Hovring.
October 23, 2026
Thank you to #Netgalley for giving me an ARC (even if I forgot about this one before it was published)
And forgetting this one? Yea so it's such a short book that it is very easily forgettable. Every relationship is confined to a chapter or two if that and really just is oh they have sex then Laura slips out after and we never hear from that person again. The description says that there's an obsession with Vivian, and honestly, that lasts for like ten minutes. I would have loved for this book to be a little longer - the thing that helps was clearly sex but I'd love to have seen some depth to the relationships. The prose is beautiful but nothing really happens that's interesting or anything more than surface level.
And forgetting this one? Yea so it's such a short book that it is very easily forgettable. Every relationship is confined to a chapter or two if that and really just is oh they have sex then Laura slips out after and we never hear from that person again. The description says that there's an obsession with Vivian, and honestly, that lasts for like ten minutes. I would have loved for this book to be a little longer - the thing that helps was clearly sex but I'd love to have seen some depth to the relationships. The prose is beautiful but nothing really happens that's interesting or anything more than surface level.
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