Hilde Hagerup

Du eneste (“You Alone”, not translated into English) is a novel inspired by the true story of the young women Gunvor Hofmo and Ruth Maier during the Second World War. Nineteen-year-old Gunvor works on a farm by Lake Mjøsa. There she meets Ruth, a Jewish refugee from Vienna. The novel portrays the love that develops between the two. Though they differ markedly in character – the solitary Gunvor and the outgoing Ruth – their hopes for the future are shared. The perspective alternates between Gunvor and Ruth from one chapter to the next. Their gentle and tender encounters take place against a bleak backdrop of war and the persecution of Jews, and Hagerup reveals already in the opening chapter how it will end for Ruth:  

“In four weeks, Ruth Maier will turn eighteen. In four years, she will die.”  

Du eneste is a powerful portrayal of falling in love and of finding one’s soulmate. At times, young love gains the upper hand over fear and anxiety, and the reader can hold their breath and hope for a happy ending. But towards the end of the book, Gunvor carries “sorrow like a crease in her forehead. The mark of rage. Forged by Franco in Spain. Coloured by Hitler in Berlin and Vienna and Oslo.”  

It is the humane, deeply human, and recognisable elements that make this such a powerful reading experience, and the book opens up space for empathy and reflection, charged with intensity and poetic force. There’s a clear rhythm in the alternation between short, concise sentences and longer, more flowing lines of thought. There’s also room for silence between the words. The movement of the language makes the reading experience intense and intimate.  

Ruth Maier was murdered in a gas chamber in Auschwitz in 1942. Gunvor Hofmo was one of Norway’s most prominent poets and died in 1995. 

Hilde Hagerup (b. 1976) is an award-winning author with many published works. She has also written for television and theatre. Her work has been translated into numerous languages.