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2000s: Shamed schoolteacher, Mathilde, moves to a dairy farm in the Norwegian countryside
Toxic
What you need to know before your trail
When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.
Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.
But beneath the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral surface of life on the farm, something darker and more sinister starts to vibrate and, with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.
Travel Guide
Norway – Oslo to the countryside
The locations here play a apart in the story – Mathilde moves from Tromsø then Oslo to move to the countryside around Telemark, to escape the scandal in the city.
Telemark is a rural area full of farmland and gorgeous views as evoked in the novel.
“Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.”
She brings with her a change. Life on that farm will never be the same again.
Booktrailer Review
Helga Flatland has a wonderful yet discerning way in dissecting family life and showing the raw, sinister side of it all.
There wasn’t anyone that I liked in the novel and was good as even as I got to know them, my dislike simply grew. That gave the novel a certain tone and nuance from the off. I knew something awful was going to happen and I wanted to see them suffer. Oh this book messed with my head!
There’s just some bad people in this novel and even ok ones that make bad choices. Oh the raw emotions in this book! These people just wanted to hurt each other didn’t they?
I don’t know what was more claustrophobic – the characters or the small community they live in.
A fascinating novel with an unsettling edge.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Toxic
Destination: Oslo, Telemark, Norway Author/guide: Helga Flatland Departure Time: 2000s
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