News of Norway, issue 3, 1996
After graduating from high school, she spends a year in Edinburgh working as an au pair and then returns to Norway to study at the University of Oslo. Crushes, clandestine relationships and the first signs of the Scandinavian gay liberation movement mark Inger's struggle to come to terms with her sexuality.
This novel is a skillful evocation of the student milieu of northern Europe in the 60s, a time of new ideas and enormous social and political changes much like the social upheaval that occurred in the United States about the same time. Both a coming-of-age and a coming-out novel, "The Four Winds" is an entertaining and endearing chronicle of a young woman's life.
This semi-autobiographical work is by the acclaimed writer Gerd Brantenberg. Born in Oslo in 1941, she grew up in Fredrikstad and has been active in the feminist movement since the 1970s. Since her first novel appeared in 1973, she has been one of Norway's most popular writers, with seven novels and a book of essays published.
Until now, only "Egalia's Daughters" (Seal Press, 1985), a biting and humorous satire of the sexes, has been available in the United States. The translator, Margaret Hayford O'Leary, is an associate professor of Norwegian at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. This is her first book-length translation.
"The Four Winds," by Gerd Bran-tenberg, translated by Margaret Hayford O'Leary, $12.95, 367 pages, paperback, ISBN 1-879679-05-1, published by Women in Translation, 3131 Western Avenue #410, Seattle, WA 98121-1041, Phone: 206/285-9458, fax: 206/285-9458.