Norway Debates The Ethics Of Writing A Near-Autobiographical Novel

Vigdis Hjorth’s novel, in which a woman in her 50s reveals to her family that her father sexually abused her as a child, has touched off a debate in Norway – and fury in her own family. “Hjorth’s sister, Helga, a human rights lawyer, responded to the book by writing a novel of her own, Fri Vilje (Free Will), in which a character suffers the trauma of living with the public fallout from a narcissistic sibling’s ‘dishonest’ autobiographical novel.” – The Observer (UK)