Linn Ullmann's bold first novel Before You Sleep is wonderfully edgy, veering close to bleakness, but is rescued by the wacky and surreal irreverence of its narrator, the chippy-chirpy Karin Blom. Interweaving in-your-face realism with moments of deliciously wild fantasy, she does the unthinkable and unsayable. And she can sing a Gershwin tune to seduce any man--even one who won't take his boots off in bed.

Short scenes, sideswipes, flashbacks, speculations, are all looped and intercut together as Karin recreates three generations of Blom women travelling from Norway to 1940s' Brooklyn and back to 1990s' Oslo. Mismatches, infidelities, rivalries litter their paths, making each unhappy family miserable in its own way. Grandfather had fallen in love with one sister but married the other and the two sisters never spoke again. The once-beautiful Anni now has "a liquid face" that her daughter Karin can no longer bear to look at. But it's her concern for her betrayed sister Julie and young son, Sandor, which reveals Karin's tender heart.

Not surprisingly, given Linn Ullmann's parentage (her father: Ingmar Bergman; her mother Liv Ullmann), Before You Sleep has a richly pictorial quality but the author's perceptive and affectionately humane eye and voice are all her own, making Before You Sleep a fine debut. --Ruth Petrie

Getting closer to life than most books., 10 Jul 2000
This young norwegian female writer has written a book as personal and impersonal at the same time, as possible is. Especially I love her ways of telling the truth, like when the mother of the narrator tells her: "Karin I love you because I am your mother, but I do not really like you that much." Why is a mother forced to love her child unconditionally? There are reasons why and there are good exceptions. This book tells you the truth, even though it is a lot about lying and a lot of it is straight out fantasies. It is really worth your attention.