Nothing Grows by Moonlight

Breathtakingly powerful... the story powers through to a conclusion that's both hard to read and impossible to look away from

Breathtakingly powerful... the story powers through to a conclusion that's both hard to read and impossible to look away from

Visceral... offers a portrait, occasionally touching on the gothic, of what an oppressive society can do to the minds and bodies of both teenage girls and industrial workers. There's a remarkable energy to Nedreaas's prose

Nothing Grows by Moonlight , in a luminous translation by Bibbi Lee, is as enigmatic as its title. Across a station platform in the blue twilight of a spring evening, a man is drawn to the sight of a woman, a stranger. The scene is at once electric and dramatic... Throughout the course of the long night, her own desperate tale of devastating love and its tortuous consequences is revealed

Both a lament and a protest... A new generation of readers might feel nostalgic for Torborg Nedreaas's conviction that a better future is on its way

It’s fantastic, it’s incredible

This startling, absorbing book will leave you fizzing with anger and possibility

Nothing Grows by Moonlight is a novel as beautiful and affecting as its title suggests. The book’s themes will resonate with readers as much today as it did in 1947. It is masterful in the balancing of story and atmosphere and powerful enough that your heart aches increasingly with each page. It has become a firm favourite and a story I will never forget

It’s hard to read this book without thinking of Tove Ditlevsen... Torborg has Norwegian pathos, a kind of compulsive, pastural song that could call any living creature home for milking... It is done, as with Tove, with great musicality, even if the music is quite different

Torborg Nedreaas (1906-1987) was born in Bergen, Norway, and was one of the most acclaimed writers of the post-war era. A committed communist, she was heavily involved in women’s advocacy, and her many award-winning novels, short stories, essays and radio plays propelled her radical ideas to a wide audience.