Published in 2025 (first published 1947)
203 pages
Torborg Nedreaas (1906-1987) is one of the 20th century’s foremost Norwegian writers, known for her social commitment and confident style. She made her debut with the short story collection Bak skapet står øksen in 1945. Two years later came her first novel, Av måneskinn gror det ingenting, which was also her breakthrough. This was followed by the award-winning Herdis trilogy: Trylleglasset (1950), Musikk fra en blå brønn (1960) and Ved neste nymåne (1971). Nedreaas was strong-willed and fearless throughout her life.
Bibbi Lee, a native of Norway who now lives in France, has also translated Nedreaas’s Music from a Blue Well.
What is this book about?
“It’s fantastic, it’s incredible” – Pedro Almodóvar
A hauntingly beautiful, unforgettable Norwegian classic, ripe for discovery
In the blue dusk of a spring evening, a man is drawn to a lonely, beautiful stranger across a station platform. She follows him home, and over one heady night of wine and cigarettes, recounts to him the devastating story of her life . . .
First published in 1947, Nothing Grows by Moonlight tells the haunting tale of one woman’s soul-shattering love affair. When an obsessive passion for her high school teacher consumes a small-town seventeen-year-old, her life spirals out of control, giving way to pregnancy, poverty and alienation. Here, darkness and light converge, and unrequited love blooms against the shadows of societal injustices, as she fights for autonomy: over her life, her mind and her body.
Captivating, visceral and brimming with emotion, Nothing Grows by Moonlight is a feminist classic of Scandinavian literature, and an uncompromising ode to female desire.
