Mermaid Heart centres on the sea and its myths – such as mermaids and the darkness in its depths – but also on plastic, migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, being open to the world, loss and violence, wildlife and its importance to us humans.
Mermaid Heart is a poetic fragmentary novel that moves through the four seasons; where reality is warped and terrifying, and connection is impossible because the body holds on to grief too tightly; but where with spring, comes hope.
Praise
“Lothe follows up her successful poetry collection Why Am I So Sad When I’m So Cute (2016) with a strong prose poem constructed liked a fragmented novel, about broken love, existential ambivalence and ocean depths just as vast and close as the starry sky. […] The author doesn’t shy away from using traditional poetic props such as the sky, the stars, the sea (with its associated marine biology), children, trees and flowers – but she handles these in her own way, through surprising changes in voice and colliding imagery, which is often slightly warped and delightfully impudent. This gives the texts a distinctive tone, an ‘edge’ that speaks to a literary self-confidence.”
5 out of 6 stars, VG
“There is significant linguistic skill on display in Ingvild Lothe’s work. [...] Violent relationships, plastic in the oceans and underwater girl power. Luckily, Ingvild Lothe remains true to form in her testing of the novel as a format.”
5 out of 6 stars, BOK365
“Once again, Lothe has written a book that made a great impression on me [...] Lothe employs very beautiful and poetic language and writes with great tenderness, often about what is painful and vulnerable. But she’s also cutting, her language razor-sharp.”
5 out of 6 stars, Beathes bokhylle
“With her first novel, Ingvild Lothe takes care of the poet within. […] The novel is twisted, dark, painful, strange – and funny. And it kicks off with a bang from the very first page.”
Dag og Tid
“Mermaid Heart (2019) is sensitive without being sentimental or pitiful – you might say it is steeped in an unclichéd weltschmerz, a world-weariness. This pointillist novel is charming and snappy, but still manages to weigh on the soul, rendering it unavoidably engaging and intimate.”
Subjekt.no
