Something That Helps

From acclaimed Norwegian writer Mona Høvring comes Something That Helps, an intimate and stirring portrait of a girl's sexual awakening, of inner strength and the turbulence of family life, of friendship and loss.Laura is in her late teens, living in a small coastal town in Western Norway, the summer before her final year of school. Haunted by the death of her mother by suicide, she has a strained relationship with her fisherman father and feels the absence of her brother and closest friend, both of whom have moved away. Equal parts lonely and bewildered, a lack of guidance has made her independent, determined, and vulnerable.When Laura meets the older and more experienced Vivian Koller, the encounter kickstarts a series of events that will come to define her and her future. Crucial influences converge that push the simultaneously childish and adult protagonist into dark places--and eventually to the start of a new life.Written in sensual, poetic prose and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Something That Helps presents a multi-faceted coming-of-age story of a young woman following her own path to destruction and reconciliation.