The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn (translated by Rosie Hedger)

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie Hedger, and I'm delighted to share an exclusive extract from the book. My thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and to the author and publisher for providing the extract. I haven't had chance to read it yet but it looks fantastic and it's on my TBR pile. Please do check it out.

The Blurb:

One of Norway’s most distinguished voices, Agnes Ravatn’s first novel to be published in the UK was The Bird Tribunal. It won an English PEN Translation Award, was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Petrona Award, and was adapted for a BBC Book at Bedtime. She returns now with a dark, powerful and deeply disturbing psychological thriller about family, secrets and dangerous curiosity…

University professor Nina is at a turning point. Her work seems increasingly irrelevant, her doctor husband is never home,relations with her adult daughter Ingeborg are strained, and their beautiful house is scheduled for demolition.

When Ingeborg decides to move into another house they own, things take a very dark turn. The young woman who rents it disappears, leaving behind her son, the day after Nina and Ingeborg pay her a visit.

With few clues, the police enquiry soon grinds to a halt, but Nina has an inexplicable sense of guilt. Unable to rest, she begins her own investigation, but as she pulls on the threads of the case, it seems her discoveries may have very grave consequences for her and her family.

The Seven Doors was published by Orenda Books as an eBook on 17th July 2020 and in paperback on 17th September 2020. You can purchase it from Orenda Books, Hive (supporting independent bookshops), Waterstones, Amazon or your usual retailer. 

Extract:

Monday 26th November

The first half of the day consisted of a hair-raising strategy seminar at the university, a humiliating three-hour-long groupwork session during which they were supposed to brainstorm suggestions for improving the quality of their research. When lunchtime eventually comes around, she sneaks away to the university library to pick up a book she’s reserved.

By the entrance to the canteen she bumps into a retired colleague she always liked and sits down with her. They immediately begin exchanging horror stories about past strategy seminars, and by the time she finally manages to tear herself away, the second part of the seminar is well under way.

She decides to skip the remainder, settles on soup of the day for lunch and finds a table tucked away from other diners where she can leaf through a newspaper in peace.

She skim-reads the editorial and comments on page three, browsing the news section disinterestedly.

When she reaches page eight, she goes cold. She recognises her immediately. It’s the tenant from Birkeveien. She has longer hair in the picture, and she’s smiling. But it’s her.

She’s gone missing.

Her name is Mari Nilsen. She’s thirty years old.

She reads the short piece three times without drawing breath, her reading interspersed with fleeting recollections of the way she and Ingeborg had recklessly barged in just a week ago. 

And now she’s missing.

Nina brings a hand to her throat; she feels as if everyone around her can see that her arteries are fit to burst beneath her paper-thin skin.

Mari Nilsen has been missing since last Thursday. Three days after their unexpected visit. She had been visiting her parents on the isle of Tornøy. She had gone for a walk, but never returned. The police have no leads. 

She’s from Tornøy, Nina thinks to herself, that must be why she seemed so familiar, perhaps they’d seen her when they’d been in Oldervik, maybe she worked at the supermarket in the summer holidays, or at weekends.

One theory is that she returned to Bergen, she reads, but there have been no sightings of her on buses or ferries. The police have issued a public appeal for information. But what about her son, Nina thinks to herself, where is he?

She picks up the phone and searches her name; women and girls of all ages appear, none of them her.

She glances up to check that nobody is watching her. She searches her name and ‘Bergen’, then ‘Tornøy’, and that narrows the search slightly, but nothing relevant appears. She searches her name in the phone book online, adding the address on Birkeveien. No Mari Nilsen; she’s not registered at the address.
A growing sense of unease grips her, or worse, perhaps: guilt.

She should really contact the police and tell them about … tell them about what, exactly? About the two unpleasant intruders who had called at the woman’s door three days before she was last seen?

She leaves the library, her vision seems blurred, she cuts across the square diagonally as she calls Mads. He doesn’t pick up, and shortly afterwards she receives a text: In a meeting, anything urgent?

She enters the Faculty of Humanities building and goes up to her office, where she sits at her computer and continues her search. She turns up a long list of hits, but none of the Mari Nilsens she finds are the right one, not even on social media, not one Facebook profile is a match.
As she prepares to type her name into the university email system, she feels her pulse begin to race. The idea that she and Ingeborg might have shown their true colours in the company of a junior colleague or a former student makes her stomach churn. She is relieved when her search comes to nothing.

Mari Nilsen’s entire existence feels almost like a dream, though Nina knows all too well that she met her very recently.'


The Author:

Agnes Ravatn (b. 1983) is a Norwegian author and columnist. She made her literary début with the novel Week 53 (Veke 53) in 2007. Since then she has written three critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections: Standing Still (Stillstand), 2011, Popular Reading (Folkelesnad), 2011, and Operation Self-Discipline (Operasjon sjøldisiplin), 2014. In these works, Ravatn revealed a unique, witty voice and sharp eye for human fallibility. Her second novel, The Bird Tribunal (Fugletribuanlet), was an international bestseller translated into fifteen languages, winning an English PEN Award, shortlisting for the Dublin Literary Award, a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick and a BBC Book at Bedtime. It was also made into a successful play, which premiered in Oslo in 2015. Agnes lives with her family in the Norwegian countryside.