Is Mother Dead

“To mother is to murder—or close enough,” Johanna muses, reflecting on the Norwegian words. Recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence, she is preparing a retrospective of her work, much of which centers on motherhood. Some of her more provocative paintings have already caused a bitter rift with her mother. The renewed closeness after decades of estrangement sets both women on edge, and soon Johanna senses her mother intruding on her thoughts—while she, in turn, begins to watch her mother’s house.

Longlisted for the International Booker Prize.