The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland

by Nicolai Houm

An American woman wakes up alone in a tent in the Norwegian mountains. Outside a storm rages and the fog is dense. Her phone is dead. She doesn't have a map or a compass or any food.

How she ended up there, and the tragic events of her past emerges over the course of this slim, gripping novel. We discover that she's a writer with a bad case of writer's block - she hasn't written a word since her husband and daughter died in a tragic car crash. As we watch Jane's life spiral out of control, we also see how she got here - her troubled parents and loving marriage.

This beautifully written, compelling novel moves seamlessly between Jane's past, and the extraordinary landscape of the Norwegian mountains, as we gradually unpick the emotional drama that has led her to this lonely landscape.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Literary Fiction, Death, Scandinavian Literature

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2016

About the author

Born in 1974, Nicolai Houm has published two novels, which were both critically acclaimed in Norway. The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland is the first publication of his work in English. He works part time as an editor in the publishing house Cappelen Damm, and lives in Lier with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 thoughts soon.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautifully short, sweet and melancholy novel, speaking to the varying levels of grief – following the path of one woman, through her life, her loss and her coming to terms with everything that the universe throws at her.

We open with her alone on a mountain, cold, isolated – but how did she come to be there? What follows is a gorgeous and wonderfully layered portrait of Jane, what defines her, through childhood, adulthood, parenthood and a loss so terrible it is barely imaginable.

The characters, Jane and those around her, come to vividly haunting life as the author captures every nuance and essence with an insightful prose and some beautiful beautiful writing. The scene setting is descriptively perfect, allowing you to see in your mind’s eye the landscape through which Jane travels, eventually ending up on that eerily alluring stormy mountain.

I loved it. The whole story just drew me in and held me there for the whole of the read. Jane was fascinating and so very real, the author leaving us with an ending open to both hope and sorrow.

Really wonderful. A beautiful looking book too – worthy of a place on any true book lover’s shelf.

Highly Recommended.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this is the third of Houm’s novels it is the first to be translated into English (from Norwegian), and another good translation to be added to the Pushkin collection.
Jane Ashland (from the US) has thrown herself into finding her family roots in an effort to overcome her huge grief after a family tragedy. We know from the media summary that at the very start of the novel she emerges from a small tent, alone on a snowy mountain in the Norwegian wilderness, the mystery is, how she got there.
It’s very readable, well-written and beautifully translated (Anna Paterson). The skill is in the reveal; as the reader gradually pieces together Jane’s life the story becomes more complete, but Jane nominally disappears. It’s a very clever study into grief.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicolai Houm has really taken a woman (Jane Ashland), who has been devastated by an accident involving her husband and daughter and took her from Wisconsin to Norway. She met Ulf on the flight to Norway and hooks up with him after she see's family in Norway. He's into researching musk ox and takes her with him into the Norwegian wilderness. All through the book it relates to Janes life and her choices at that specific time. When she's young and meets her husband, latter when they have their child. Even later when she suffers with her loss. I like the way he ended the story and I gave it 4 stars.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonlinear story of relentless grief from the POV of a woman named Jane. Memories of childhood, courtship, adult life and a slowly revealed tragedy at the center of the novel are intertwined with a trip to Norway to visit distant relatives and an impulsive trek with a zoologist met on the plane. Jane is not always a likeable character but is more real and unforgiving of herself in a way that makes her grief more realistic.

[Kirstie Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

Initial Thoughts Upon Finishing
Well . . . this was really just not for me. The whole story felt entirely lacking in direction with confusing chapter after confusing chapter. Perhaps I missed the whole point, but I didn't find it a riveting nor interesting enough read to appreciate that maybe the way it was written was to reflect the internal thoughts and workings of Jane? I pushed through hoping for an interesting end but was last indignantly bamboozled by the lack of a satisfying conclusion. Hmf.



Why I Didn't Like It
The book was a meandering story of a very disturbed character and jumped - every single chapter - from one moment in time to another, back and forth with no apparent relationship to the previous scene.



Jane was a highly unlikeable character. It takes the whole book to get the story as to why she is how she is but the book read so detached and monotonous, with little to no emotion throughout the whole thing. She does weird things, she's uncomfortable, she's unhinged and I didn't enjoy her one bit.



The blurb pulls you in with the hopes and promises of some sort of thriller or mystery - a woman alone in the Norwegian mountains! No food! No reception! How did she get there?! Well . . . there were approximately 4 chapters (of about 4 pages each) that are actually dealing with that part.



It's not an exciting reveal as to why she's there, the suggestion that someone has done something bad to her throughout and left her there falls heavily flat, and the resolution at the end was breathtakingly boring. I feel bad that I'm so uninspired by this book but lord, I am. I did not get this book, not one bit.



Summary
What more is there to say? This book made me angry that I was so let down by it. It's a confusing mess without a clear plot line and lead by a highly dislikeable character. But alas, it has many good reviews so perhaps I shall just say that the shoe, in this case, simply did not fit. You might have better luck.



Happy reading!

[Ingalill]

Trua på bokhøsten er tilbake.

[Thebooktrail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visit the locations in the novel


They say beautiful things come in small packages and this is one of them. The cover and the setting of the story are very nicely drawn – an ethereal green cover, the setting of the Norwegian mountains, remote and raw.

The story however is one of darkness, grief, addiction and loss. Against such a stunning background, the trauma was even stronger and I found the mountains and landscape was actually one of Jane’s worst enemies after all. She is stuck there, without a phone, on her own, and then we find out how and why she got there.

Jane’s story is told with flashbacks throughout her life as she thinks about what’s brought her to this point. It’s very thought provoking but very bleak and I did find it a bit too bleak in places. This is Jane’s journey but she takes you, the reader, with her.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad and beautiful, this slim novel portrays Jane's grief compassionately and realistically. Her grief is caused by a tragedy that changed her entire life, and what I liked about this book was the back and forth between past and present that gradually built up this full picture of Jane's life before and Jane's life after. It seems easy in a book about grief for the main character to seem pathetic; Jane is anything but.

[Jackie Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland, by Nicolai Houm (translated by Anna Paterson), opens with a woman waking up in a tent believing she is going to die. Just a short time before she had flown to Norway to meet up with distant relatives. She has now been abandoned in a cold, lonely landscape; left without food, water or a map. The woman’s name is Jane Ashland and she struggles to relate to anyone, or to care much about their reactions to her behaviour.

The story moves around in time between Jane’s years studying literature at university, her relationships, the time spent with relatives in Norway, and the events leading to her abandonment. It becomes clear that Jane is damaged. She drinks heavily and relies on prescription drugs. Each chapter is a jigsaw piece in the puzzle that reveals the story of her life. It takes a little while for the picture to take shape, for the pieces to slot together.

Jane’s behaviour early on may be harshly judged, initial impressions being as they are reliant on a code of social conformity. The snapshots given of her background, shown as they are out of order, encourage the reader to guess at reasons. This is cleverly done – prejudices may be revealed.

From Jane’s earlier life in America through to her attempts to connect with family in Norway there is an underlying feeling of impending crisis. The complexities inherent in any relationship are adroitly presented. The evocation of grief is vivid and piercing.

The non linear structure requires the reader to follow multiple threads. Knowing that Jane ends up in a life threatening situation adds tension. The writing though is more literary than thriller in style. It is haunting and deeply moving.

This is a love story depicted with realism and regret, an exploration of empathy, or its lack, in what comes after. Jane’s behaviour will take the reader through a roller-coaster of emotions. A powerful, enthralling read.

My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Pushkin Press.

[Nikola · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can also find this review on my book blog.

I saw this book a while back on Twitter and what first struck me was its cover which looked so interesting. I came across this book again when I requested Only Killers and Thieves and then I took a closer look at it (read the synopsis) and was SOLD. Trust me, once you read the synopsis you’ll want to find out more about it!

The Gradual Dissappearance of Jane Ashland starts with a woman, who we learn is called Jane, who wakes up in a tent somewhere in the Norwegian mountains. The devices she has which can save her from this situation don’t work so she’s left on her own. Who is Jane? What is she doing there all alone? While reading this novel we get her complete story and slowly get to know what happened to her.

As I’ve mentioned we get Jane’s life story, her university years, her marriage, her visit to her Norwegian cousins and more. Houm slowly paints a picture of Jane and her past which give us a more clear look at who she is and what kind of a person she is. We can see that Jane is a troubled individual and the way she expresses herself shows us exactly that –for example: in the way she approaches relationships. My personal experience with this novel was positive because I love Houm’s writing style and kudos to the translator for bringing this book to life with her skills. What some people might find confusing and/or annoying will be the switching through stories from her past so you might get lost if you don’t pay attention while reading. I found this part a bit confusing at times because of university so I had to read it in smaller chunks. So listen up kids, better take notes while reading a book because with a lot of new information in your head stuff will get lost.

I would definitely recommend this book to other readers because it’s a read that will be up many people’s alleys with it’s intriguing synopsis and the story inside.

The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland is a novel you’ll be wanting to analyze after you’ve finished it.

I would like to thank the publisher Pushkin Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions written in this review are my own and have not been influenced by anything.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this one. I don't like Jane, I don't find the other characters particularly likable either. The back and forth from present to past feels choppy, and maybe the problem is I don't get enough of Jane's story early on in order to feel anything other than annoyed about her behavior.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally liked this. Slim and gripping is a good description. You don't know what is actually motivating the main character until the end, although there are hints. The writing is very evocative of the northern landscape in which a good part of the book is set.

[Steven Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird book, not sure I got the deeper message

[Thelastwordreview · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story starts with a woman (Jane Ashland) waking up in a tent in the Norwegian mountains. Outside a storm is battering the bleak landscape and Jane believes she is about to die. The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm (translated by Anna Paterson) is a gripping and compelling story of a woman who flies to Norway to see relatives. But how did Jane Ashland get to be here and alone.

Jane has now found herself alone in a bleak landscape in a tent with no food or water, she has no idea of where she is or how she got here. This is a powerful story that is under 200 pages that I found very difficult to leave. A story that just grabbed hold of my senses and refused to let go until I have finished the last page.

I love a story about leading central character and is just them and here is the perfect example. Told in flashbacks through her life. It turns out that Jane is a wounded soul, damaged by drink and prescription drugs. Yet there is the part of a flashback that Jane was studying literature and her relationships while she was in the States. Over time she tried to reach out to her relatives in Norway, but you always fear there are storm cloud just on the horizon in Janes life and then they hit. Like the mountainous landscape Jane has found herself in, this is a rugged and raw novel. It is bleak and chilling.

What I found through this novel is how incredible Nicolai Houm just little by little feed the reader with details of Jane’s life leaving you with a sense on always wondering about Jane. Reading this I found was like a drug, addictive and once in you wanted more and more. This is stunning piece of writing with complex threads. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeg er litt usikker på hva jeg egentlig synes om denne boken. Det er mye hopping i tid, noe jeg vanligvis ikke liker. Språket er en merkelig blanding av anglisismer og gammeldagse norske ord som passer bedre inn i en oversettelse av Agatha Christies bøker om Miss Marple. Resultatet er så forvirrende at jeg ble nødt til å sjekke om jeg leste boken på originalspråket eller ikke. (Det gjorde jeg.)

Til tross for de underlige ordvalgene er boken nokså fascinerende. Nesten fengslende. Den trekker deg inn i sin forvirrende verden, hvor du ikke vet stort mer om hovedpersonen Jane Ashland enn at hun er helt ødelagt av sorg. All hoppingen fremover og bakover i tid gjør at forfatteren kan utsette å avsløre "mysteriet" (årsaken til sorgen) til helt på tampen av boken. Jepp, dette er et slags sorgmysterium. Med lange avsporinger om litteratur og moskus. En annen snodig ting ved boken er at den er veldig kort - kun 144 sider i min utgave. Så den er en slags kortroman eller lang novelle. Jeg ble først anbefalt den engelske oversettelsen på Amazon.co.uk, som koster hele £8.82, dvs. over 65 øre per side! Heldigvis fant jeg den norske versjonen på appen eBokBib, så jeg fikk lest den gratis.

Så for å oppsummere: dette er en forvirrende bok om en forvirret dame, av forvirrende lengde og med forvirrende ordvalg, til en særs forvirrende pris. Men jeg har en følelse av at den kommer til å "sitte i" nokså lenge. Det er min erfaring at det ofte er bøker jeg ikke liker spesielt godt som har størst effekt på meg. Og en bok du ofte tenker tilbake på, er nødvendigvis en god bok, uavhengig av om du likte den eller ikke. Så jeg anbefaler boken - men lån den på biblioteket.

[sarah♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book randomly at my library and the description mixed with the beautiful cover made me pick it up. If I'm going to be honest, I was mistakenly expecting there to be more of a focus on her being stranded in the Norwegian mountains but the story I read was much, much better. It is a nonlinear story because it jumps back and forth between present Jane and Jane's life in America.
There is a lot of grief in this story and I think what I like most about it is that it's not your TYPICAL grief story. The main character can be quite unlikable sometimes and she isn't perfect, so I appreciate that rawness because grief presents itself in so many different ways, even ways that arent so understandable to others. This was apparant in the ways different characters treated Jane. I could really feel the emotions that Jane was going through and I felt a strange sense of melancholy reading this.
The way the author reveals the tragedy and sets up her story so it all eventually leads to the Jane of now was wonderfully constructed.
To me, it was quick and easy to read and while it's not necessarily suspenseful I often found myself worrying about what was coming next.
A fascinating novel.

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely back and forth between 3-4 stars. Jane Ashland travels to Norway after experiencing heavy grief and trauma. She uses genealogy and the exploration of family history as a means of moving forward. In a fog-like fashion, she hesitantly befriends a man next to her on the plane. We quickly descend into Norwegian heather + rock. We see Jane slowly disappear in the present thru the tremors and eruptions of her past. The layers of grief are as striking as they are subtle. I think where the novel veers in a safe direction is in its ability to present half-facts and clues. There are definitely moments of foreshadowing and high creep vibes, but they feel slightly off kilter. I was disappointed there wasn't more of a focus on the present terrain. I too longed to see the Musk Oxen. I also feel as if Jane had been disappearing all along, and what caused it or created it seems to be in similar conclusion to that of The Haunting of Hill House. Either way, the writing grows on you, as if Houm is constructing the very atmosphere around you while you peer out from a small, orange tent.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel tells the story of a woman experiencing unthinkable grief which for her is really unbearable. Just think of her name: Jane (anyone, like Jane Doe, like you or me) ASHland -- her name is almost Dickensian. She falls beneath what life has dealt her and throughout the just over 200 pages we suffer with her and yet are driven forward to understand what caused such pain.
At first I disliked Jane for her coldness, her inability to respond to the warmth of others, but slowly the author peels the onion and we learn why. “Hating the spring, the flowers don’t dare to flourish” (194). And finally I wanted to embrace Jane, to stroke her back as you would a child. “… Do you realize that without feeling anything, it is possible to imitate how it used to be done” (224).
This novel, powerful, strange, even sometimes darkly humorous, immerses the reader in grief while keeping us reading to figure out what is the cause, the why.
Well worth the read.

[Cflack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one started out slow for me, but it built slowly and deliberately into a very power portrait of grief and internal musings and pain. Jane Ashland is a woman who it takes us a while to understand, but as I write this I'm thinking maybe we really don't understand her. She is a woman still processing her grief and finds herself alone in a precarious situation.

The last quarter of this novel is just searing with personal pain and the writing is just devastating to read. A very power poignant portrait of person pain and grief.

"Hating someone on TV who talks about grieving with dignity. Hating TV. Hating the word accept. Hating everything that carries on regardless, indefatigably. Hating all those who avoid you as if you were infectious. Hating those who don't avoid you but fail to understand. Hating the spring, the flowers that dare to flourish."

[EmmaWise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its relatively short length, The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland packs it in; philosophy, the nature of grief and of love and maybe forgiveness, what it means to be a writer. But for me it’s the depiction of Norway, Houm’s home country, that fascinates. As well as the landscape that Jane literally and figuratively becomes lost in, the character of the nation is examined with a critical eye that can only belong to someone who hails from there. And on the fringes, the Eastern European immigrants hover. Cleverly structured, it is not until the final chapters that Jane’s tragedy is fully revealed to us and we understand the horror of the aftermath of the event.
Intelligent, revelatory, melancholy, Jane Ashland deserves to reach a very wide audience indeed.

[Diane Stultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very short novel, but packed with drama. The title is what attracted me to this book. How does one gradually disappear? This is a story of love, grief, and trying to exist in a "new normal". The main character, Jane, does not always fare very well and as the title indicates she does gradually disappear...or does she? The ending leaves one wondering. It certainly is an applicable metaphor.

I do not want to give the story away, but the writer has a gifted way of unraveling Jane's story...the reader learns Jane's story in small pieces throughout the story. It weaves back and forth but knits together a solid picture. Jane is a believable character, and anyone who has gone through grief will find this book haunting in a very real way.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was told nonlinearly and in the end it just isn’t worth the effort it took to figure out where and when the next scene was relative to the big picture. It took half the book for me to care a little about the story and I quickly figured out after that why Jane was such a jerk. There is one terrific chapter in the final 30 pages that was gripping and interesting. But that was it. Perhaps the book would have been worth reading had the author hooked me on the tragedy and its immediate aftermath instead of the coy and superficial timeline chaos.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there is such a thing as a beautifully depressing tale....this is it. Jane is a sometimes author who is trying to get away from it all after a tragic circumstance and she sort of succeeds but at a most horrible cost. Abandoned in Norway's wilderness in search of the elusive Musk Ox with a new-found friend Ulf, she is doing all she can to survive while reminiscing about the events that brought her here. It's a cold, lonely and sad journey!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapters are brilliant, especially the second when Jane if flying in a plane, distracted, not right. I like that she isn't meant to be likable. She's going through something, someone points out to her, and that is true. She is like her husband's writing. The story becomes less interesting after the beginning. 3.5 stars

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book to me just screamed pretentious. It was obvious from the beginning where the plot was going, the description of Jane read like a parody on reddit men writing women thread and i never cared about he character. The prose was easy to read and I vaguely wanted to know what happened which is why it gets two stars.

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I like linear books. This book jumped around too much. The event that would connect you to the character and make sense of everything that she thinks and does, isn’t revealed until the end of the book. By which point I had lost interest in the character who was otherwise two dimensional and the monotony of her day to day decisions with little clues about why she was acting this way

[Lisa Wendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written story about a woman who loses a child and struggles to regain her bearings. Very insightful. Plot itself was implausible and a bit silly; more a literary device to hang the narrative upon than a realistic possibility. Nevertheless, Houm's descriptions of grief and the bizarre emotional landscape of intense sorrow are authentic.

[Jessie Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wild. I honestly felt lost multiple times because of the rapid changing timeline but I also stayed super curious on where it was heading. The main character is….. she’s struggling mentally, and we unravel why in a really strange way. I personally liked it but I’d struggle to say I recommend it too.

[Tom Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane was self-destructive, unpredictable and out of control which didn't make her an especially likable character. Though I eventually understood how she ended up this way, it was still a bit hard to relate and have empathy for her. A quick and entertaining read, but a bit lightweight.