The Righteous
Helene Uri
A new novel from the author of The Best Among Us, the Oslo Campus novel which sold 80,000 copies.
Excerpts:
From chapter 1
A little girl pirouettes around the room. Her fair hair is in plaits and she has a tutu on. She is wearing nothing on top and when she lifts her skirt up high, so high, as small children do when they want to do a real curtsy, it is obvious that she is wearing nothing underneath either, only that one piece of clothing: a see-through, white tutu. The light in the room is dim. In the sofa, a man sits watching. There is a glass of something on the table in front of him, but he doesn´t touch it. He just watches. He leans back in the sofa, closes his eyes for a moment, but then opens them again and looks at the girl. She dances on. In clumsy leaps and bounds, with her thin, childish bottom and round-drum tummy. ´Give me a twirl,´ the man says. The girl twirls, laughs, and nearly falls over. ´Perfect pirouette,´ the man says. ´Now you have to curtsy.´ The girl curtsies, lifts her tutu up as high as she can, and curtsies again. ´Are you going to twirl some more?´ the man asks. The girl twirls until she bumps into the coffee table, causing whatever it is in the glass to slosh around. ´Come over here and sit down, Elise,´ says the man. The girl looks at him, then obediently creeps up into his lap. He puts his arms round her tiny frame. Her little sister has gone to bed extra early, because she has a bad cold, such a bad, bad cold. Mummy has gone to the pictures with some friends. There´s only Elise and Daddy in the whole wide world. He kisses her behind the ear.
´My lovely girl. Daddy´s big girl.´
Elise´s toy rabbit falls on to the floor.
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