Wilful Disregard: A Novel About Love
by Lena Andersson and Sarah Death (translator)
Buy on AmazonEster Nilsson is a sensible person in a sensible relationship. Until the day she is asked to give a lecture on famous artist Hugo Rask. The man himself sits in the audience, spellbound, and, when the two meet afterwards, he has the same effect on her. From now on Ester's existence is intrinsically linked to this conversation, and the chain of events that unravels will change Ester's life. Arbitrary Conduct is a kind of dark love story, it is a story of total and desperate devotion and about how willingly we betray ourselves in our longing to be loved.
Recommended by
"I personally didn’t find the read painful at all. I just love this book and the smartness of it so much, and I laughed out loud many times while reading it. It makes you feel a bit awkward as Lena Andersson, in a sublime and phenomenological way, investigates and portrays the nature of being in love. “Love is a sort of illness that only the absolute loss of hope will cure you of” What she finds is that it can be described in other ways than we’re used to, and yes, it is a sort of illness, a character disorder, a kind of insanity that only the absolute loss of hope will cure you of. Any person who’s been hopelessly in love during their lifetime will read this and recognize themselves, feeling a bit ashamed but also incredibly relieved to find that love is a condition that can be described through philosophy, humour and literature. Lena Andersson is a literary philosopher. She investigates, researches, contemplates, twists and turns and tries to see stuff from new angles. In the process she sheds a light on things you’d never thought about before. She’s minimalist, she’s smart and funny and should be read slowly and with delight."
Contemporary Scandinavian Literature · fivebooks.com