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Vigdis Hjorth is a pretty big deal in Norway She has written thirty-seven books, the majority of them novels, but Will and Testament is the first to be published in English translation by a trade publisher in the UK, and only her second novel to be published in English translation It has just been nominated for a National Book Award It is not surprising that her long overdue breakthrough is happening with this novel, now Not only was it a bestseller in Norway, and nominated for some of the region’s biggest prizes, it also kicked off a scandal that turned into yet another nationwide discussion about truth in fiction    Hjorth’s translator Charlotte Barslund mostly maintains Hjorth’s direct, occasionally abrupt, prosaic language and skilfully conveys Hjorth’s long sentences and inner monologues, so key to an author who takes readers deep into the psyche of her protagonists Arriving in English translation, the novel comes packaged with a slight sheen of Scandi noir and is promoted with the – familiar – tagline, ‘A terrible secret’ Much of the discussion around it has centred on Hjorth’s own family story, and how it relates to the novel But whether or not Hjorth’s novels are autobiographical is one of the less interesting questions about her work Anglophone readers are finally introduced to a writer at the height of her powers, a deeply political author who combines blunt critique of the country and society she lives in with an investigation into the personal failings of its supposed intellectual elite    Both Will and Testament and Hjorth’s previous novel, A House in Norway, feature a narrator who works in the arts, has grown-up children and a partner she doesn’t live with; who drinks a lot of red wine and has a tendency towards angry nocturnal outbursts; who goes on holidays in Europe (Spain, Germany), references classic psychology, Central European and Norwegian writers, and left-wing politics Both narrators may or may not be Vigdis Hjorth; what is certain is that Hjorth always starts from a personal point,