Ida Hansen is a nurse at a psychiatric hospital in pleasant Trondheim. One day Fanny, one of her patients, a young girl to whom Ida felt strongly attached, disappears. In one way or another, Ida feels responsible for Fanny’s well-being, and begins to investigate the matter. Because Fanny was tormented by a frenzy of persecution, she was convinced that an unknown man was watching her and following her. At the hospital, they have dismissed this as paranoid delusions. But Ida is now beginning to wonder: Could there be something in it? Could it be the man from Fanny’s “fantasies” who has taken her? Ida gets her suspicions reinforced by the fact that several young girls have disappeared recently, girls who look like Fanny. And the worst thing is that it all reminds her of something from her own life, from the dark time in her childhood, the one she has tried with all her might to forget and escape from, but which will now return with full force. FIRST BOOK FOR ADULTS: Anne Elvedal was born in 1973 and grew up near Trondheim. She is a trained nurse and has also studied at the text and writing department at Kristiania University College. She has been a screenwriter for film and television, and in the autumn of 2020 she made her debut as an author with the first book in the youth trilogy “The Game of Death”. “You can call me Jan” is her first book for adults. Photo: Fartein Rudjord / Cappelen Damm Lighter unstable If this is the kind of book you would like to read, I would say that this is a good time to stop reading the review and start reading the book instead. But be warned: “You can call me Jan” is not for the faint of heart. Because it is no exaggeration at all to call Ida Hansen an unreliable narrator. We notice it early on, there is something not quite right in the way she relates to her surroundings. Ida has several layers of camouflage or disguises around her. And a set of ritual compulsions she must always carry out. Ida also has a penchant for certain sexual practices that are a little out of the ordinary. False memories Much of this can naturally be traced back to the major traumatic experience in childhood. In order to gain clarity about what actually happened at the time, Ida gets help from a nice colleague, who uses hypnosis to evoke the memories of the abuse. The disadvantage of this technique is, of course, that it opens the way to implanting fictitious memories, to manipulation. And in this slightly paranoid universe, you can’t take anything for granted. You cannot trust that your colleague actually wants you well. No, you can’t even trust that the false memories are actually false. This is what the publisher writes about the book: “An intense and enigmatic psychological thriller about memories and identity – filled with disturbing disputes and horror.” For once, it is not an exaggeration, but rather a precise product declaration for what is inside. From film to book This is Anne Elvedal’s first book for an adult audience, but it would be wrong to call her a debutante. There is also nothing fumbling or hesitating about this story, it oozes authority from the first page. Elvedal has a long career as a screenwriter for film and television. She also has a book series in progress for young people, called “Spökelsslottet”. “You can call me Jan”, on the other hand, is not for young readers at all, and perhaps some sensitive adults should also consider staying away. When Elvedal first moves from the cinematic to the literary, it is impressive to see how well she masters the strengths of the literary narrative, which is the direct access to the characters’ inner selves. And in this case, the distance between what goes on in the characters’ minds and what exists outside. Hear Anne Elvedal as a guest in “Drivkraft”: A knife-soaked King “You can call me Jan” is a gradual uncovering of the past, an uncovering that is credible because it is full of stray tracks, dead ends, lies and misunderstandings. The past is a foreign country that does not necessarily become more comprehensible the closer you study it. And the desire to find out what happened is countered by the creeping fear of finding out the truth. Is it perhaps better to continue living with a comfortable lie? Elvedal masters the complex plot brilliantly, and towards the end pulls in a well-measured dose of the supernatural, a knife-sharp Stephen King who contributes the right kick to this cauldron of horror and horror. The finale is masterfully executed. Elvedal stretches credibility to the breaking point, but it just fits, not least because it is so well written. It’s dark, it’s depraved. It is exciting and shocking. It’s “You can call me Jan”. Read at your own risk. news reviewer Photo: Cappelen Damm Title: “You can call me Jan” Author: Anne Elvedal Genre: Crime Number of pages: 288 Published: August 2024 Publisher: Cappelen Damm Hi! My name is Ola Hegdal, and I read and review books for news. Preferably crime and suspense literature, or non-fiction. Feel free to read my review of “The Anomaly” by Hervé Le Tellier, “Rasende lys” by Nikolaj Frobenius or “A perfect mother” by Alex Dahl. Published 03/09/2024, at 09.39
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“You can call me Jan” by Anne Elvedal – Reviews and recommendations
