Present Tense Machine: A Novel

"In Gunnhild Øyehaug’s playful yet poignant novel, a mother misreads a word as her young daughter plays nearby – a mistake that splits the mother’s world into two parallel universes, irrevocably erasing her from her daughter’s life and vice-versa. From then on, mother and daughter continue to exist as thinkers and artists – but in their own worlds. Each woman’s identity reflects the novel’s central duality: To be a biological mother is to be divided by gestation and birth, yet to be a creator is to assume an eternal, genderless, and indivisible presence. By rejecting the classical concept of tragedy, Øyehaug’s modern Genesis story beautifully unifies life and art."