Liv Karin loses her temper with her teenage-daughter Kaja, without realising that the angry words exchanged between them will be their last. With great warmth and insight into human emotions, Heidi Linde portrays Kaja’s four last days via a tapestry of stories and human destinies: the young doctor, Jonas, who tried to move on in life after a fatal diagnosis while on call; Ivan, who went one step too far; the student, Ingeborg, who researches into the lives of inmates behind prison walls; and the young girl, Lykke, who has finally found her unknown father, but who has to realise that he has no wish to be found. All of these, in their separate ways, come to influence how things go for Kaja.
With such writers as Jonathan Franzen and Nick Hornby as her literary predecessors, Heidi Linde describes everyday human lives with bittersweet humour and inquisitive warmth. Counted days is a book about the kindness and callousness in the relations on which we build our lives, and about how small things can have unforeseeable consequences. Before one knows, it can be too late to say you’re sorry.
Quotes from reviews
“Heidi Linde’s new novel is a true page-turner about love, death and loss […] Linde is a master when it comes to easygoing and amusing writing, without becoming dull and one-dimensional. She handles plot and drive so well it made me read Numbered Days in no time.” VG
“A convincing tragedy from everyday life.” Dagens Næringsliv
“A quiet novel with charged undertones.” Dagbladet
