Before entering further into this novel, there is a question to be asked. Should male novelists always make their protagonists male, and female writers choose females as their main character, while the gender of all of the other incidental characters in their books are of little consequence? Of course not. Voice appropriation is part of a politically correct philosophy to which I cannot ascribe. Yet, after reading Grøndahl's novel, 'an altered light', I wonder if a woman would have viewed his protagonist in a different light. I found it difficult to relate to Beckman, an apparently successful Copenhagen family lawyer, whose world suddenly falls apart. Are successful women really as self-deceptive as Beckman appears to be at the novel's beginning? Is this view of her an image only a man would have of a woman, or is this a typically European view of women? I cannot answer this. One thing is certain, however. This is a very northern European book. It is obviously not written by someone influenced by the Anglo-Saxon literary thought process, whether it is a North America or a British one.

Worlds do fall apart, but most of us manage to cope with adversity, illness or betrayal, and so hold the pieces together. If, however, we avoid looking at the truth, if we build an artificial life around us, then we will end up uncertain of whom or . . .

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