Grown Ups follows Ida, a forty-year-old Architect, as she spends time in her family's cabin alongside her immediate family. Marthe, Ida's sister is pregnant after many attempts. Ida is single and desperate to have a child, though she keeps her wishes to herself.

Aubert captures the claustrophobia of time spent in close quarters with those who have known you the longest well. She also plays with time, the sisters grew up holidaying in the cabin and memories are everywhere. The characters have complex relationships and desires, and there is a strong sense of setting.

The book unfortunately just wasn't for me. I don't know if some of the nuances have been lost in translation, or if I'm simply not interested enough in the topic of motherhood for the writing to hit me. I'd be interested to read other books from this author as I found the other aspects of the book so good, and would recommend it to those looking for a wistful reflection on motherhood, family and memory.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absolutely strange, uncompromising and utterly brilliant story delving into the heart of what makes us human and whether we ever feel “grown-up”. Though I hope my family life is not as bad or dysfunctional as the characters within this book.

I absolutely loved this book and could relate to Ida in a few different ways and fully sympathised with some of her frustrations and worries about life. This is a short book which I devoured in one sitting and translated from Norwegian to English. It did make me ponder did the translation and language allow the words to become raw on page. Therefore I don't want to give too much away in my review and spoil it for others.

Ida is the protagonist, a 40 year old single woman who is fighting not only her demons but the worlds expectations of where she should be in life sit heavily n her shoulders. Ida is getting so caught up how she wants her ideal life to be that at times she forgets whats around her.

There is an added touch as you follow Ida on her tinder dates but again this adds another element to Ida's story as she is battling loneliness and poor self esteem. Another worry Ida has is will she ever become a mother and contemplates freezing her eggs.


As I said at the start I can begin to say how I loved this book and will be re-reading it. The author did a brilliant job highlighting some important issues such as fertility, loneliness and mental health and making Ida relatable.

Combine a gorgeous cover, a dreamy Norwegian setting and an interesting plot and you get a lovely read at just 160 pages.

Our main character is Ida, a 40-year old architect who is single and is beginning to worry about her future.
I first saw this novella on @ormondebooks ‘s feed and thought it would be a good one to try.
The translation is flawless and it effortlessly draws you into that cabin in the fjord with Ida and her family.
I felt the author explored extremely well the societal pressures that women face to have children and the difficulties to fit in or navigate as a single person when no one else around is. It shouldn’t be the norm to expect everyone to have or want children.
A good summer read, which also made me reminisce about my two trips to Norway with my bestie. A fantastic country for the outdoors.

3.5/5
Thank you to @NetGalley and @PushkinPress for this book in return for my honest review.

This was such a melancholic book to read, I wasn’t expecting it at all. We are following the story of Ida, as she goes out to her family’s holiday cabin on the edge of a fjord to celebrate her mother’s birthday, along with her stepfather, her sister and her sister’s family. Ida’s life isn’t going to plan at all. She is forty, alone and contemplating freezing her eggs before time runs out.

Ida is quite a hard character to like, to be honest. She seems pathologically jealous of her sister, to the point where she is actively destructive. I understand where she is coming from. Her sister is hugely annoying – demanding and self-centred – and everyone seems to pander to her. At least this is how it looks to Ida, and she feels side-lined by the rest of the family. I have three sisters, and sometimes they can wind me up because we are all very different people, but I would never behave to them the way Ida does. She seems quite sly, which is hard to warm to.

In fact, most of the people in this story, and it is a small cast, are quite dysfunctional. The one person who isn’t, probably because he is so peripheral, Ida hates, probably because he observations on her behaviour are so acute and she doesn’t like having her faults mirrored back at her. In fact, I am sure the author meant Stein to act a little as Ida’s conscience, not that she takes much notice of him.

This is an excoriating treatise on family relationships, and how some people’s are so transactional. If you don’t behave a certain way, affection can be withheld. It is a diatribe against the expectations society has, with the family acting as a microcosm of society here, on women and how women feel when they can’t meet those expectations. How it undermines their own opinion of themselves. I didn’t get the impression that Ida liked herself very much, she certainly isn’t happy, but I also wasn’t convinced she wanted the things she was pursuing particularly for herself, but because that is what society expects her to do.

The book is beautifully written, with very detailed and well-developed characters who were very realistic on the page. Perhaps too realistic. I fully believed in the relationships that were playing out on the page, and they made me deeply sad. It is astounding to me that this book was written by someone young, as it has such a world-weary air. It is a sorry reflection of modern society that this is how it still makes women feel when they do not conform to an outdated stereotype.

This is a fantastically crafted novel, with some beautiful imagery, impressive characterisation and thought-provoking themes. It reminded me of how I felt after reading Sarah Moss’s exceptional Summerwater last year. Moved but profoundly sad. If you are looking for something meaningful to read, look no further.

The protagonist in this novel is Ida, a 40 year old single woman, that is desperate to have a child. I didn’t really like Ida, even though she is a very realistic character. She has a lot of grudges towards her little sister, her tendency to be a mistress of married men and her “shit staring” nature is something that I despise in people in general. Her sister is not much better either. Marthe has been an attention seeker her whole life, and her behaviour was very petty sometimes as well. The relationship between these two sisters is quite toxic, and it is hard for me to watch it because I have a little sister and even though we are opposites we get along very well. ❤

The narrative of this novel is told from a single perspective, but that was more than enough. Ida is sharing her memories from the past as well as the events happening at present. It is a pretty short book, and it covers a mini holiday in the cabin. The topics discussed in this book are pregnancy, jealousy, family relationships, sisterly competition etc.

The setting of this book is very calming and relaxing. The writing style is very compressed and I liked how the whole story was told. The chapters of this book are pretty short and the pages just flew by for me. The ending of this book was a little strange, but it kind of rounded up the story.

So, to conclude, this short novel has very complex characters that seem extremely realistic, and the plot is a little dramatic, but at the same time it covers a lot of interesting topics. I really liked this one sitting read, and would strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a holiday read with a punch.

Single 40-year-old Ida is holidaying with her extended family whilst they celebrate her mother’s 65th Birthday. Staying with them is her mother’s boyfriend, her sister, her brother in law and his daughter. Ida is a jealous woman. She is jealous of how her sister’s life has turned out, especially as she announces she is pregnant after years of trying.

Ida decides she isn’t going to be the odd one out without a family and seeks to take her sister’s husband and his daughter.

I must admit some of the book was hard to digest. At times I wanted to throw it (well my Kindle) out of the window. What type of person gets so angry about their sister being pregnant and feeling like she is no longer going to be needed and will now be left on the shelf that she decides that the only option is to flirt and try to steal her brother-in-law and make his daughter like her better than her sister. Cleary Ida doesn’t think straight or rationally, nor does she have any love for her sister.

The whole family though are unlikeable. They all think of themselves so highly and that the others are beneath them. Whilst I found the plot strange and angering, I also found it inviting and intriguing too. Are there families across the world that really treat one another like this? I just don’t get it. I understand family fallouts, etc but to stay in contact, holiday together, pretending to like one another, and then to be two-faced just doesn’t sit right with me – walk away!

The setting is what makes this book stand out. A gorgeous cabin in Norway, it makes you just want to pack your bags and head there (as long as the family is long gone!!). This is the tale of a very dysfunctional egocentric family. It shows you that grown-ups don’t have all the answers or the knowledge. It was like reading about a bunch of children who disliked each other being put into a house and left to it.

I can’t say that I found any of it funny but I did like the feeling of being a fly on the wall and stepping out of my comfort zone. It left me wondering what Ida would do next and I was always suspicious of her. I loved watching how this family came together for their mother’s birthday and tore each other apart whilst they were there.

Grown Ups is a quick easy read at just 160 pages. I also found the writing style worked perfectly for the plot as you got to be inside Ida’s rather unreasonable head.

I didn't like this book. I didn't like the characters - a selfish bunch of narcissists - and I was relieved that it was very short. Perhaps I should be more sympathetic to the characters but they're not written sympathetically. Ida, the main protagonist, is 40. She's been looking into getting her eggs frozen because she wants a child but her romantic history is one of having affairs with married men and that's not a great strategy for impending motherhood. Her younger sister has been struggling with fertility issues and has just become pregnant, killing off most of her husband's interest in love or lust along the way.

The sisters meet at a cabin by the sea. Very Norwegian. The cabin was pretty much the best thing about this novel. Over the course of a few days, a lifetime of jealousy and resentment plays out. Things are done that shouldn't be done. Things are said that definitely shouldn't be repeated. A bunch of selfish people behave selfishly against a scenic backdrop that can't compensate for their utter lack of likeability.

This was a big fat 'miss' for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

I was quite torn when reading this book, on the one hand I felt very sorry for Ida, throughout the story I felt her yearning and desolate need for children of her own, I felt her pain and when she thought back to periods of time in her past I could see why she made the decisions she did. However on the flip side despite her desperation and sadness a lot of the time I really didn't particularly like her very much, I found her selfish and sometimes unnecessarily vindictive. As a nearly 40 year old woman, I felt she should have been able to let some of the past go and move on towards having a better relationship with her family. I flipped between these two feelings throughout the whole of the book. I have to say when a story manages to make me feel so conflicted I think it is a sign of great writing, for a book to evoke that amount of emotion within me towards a character I have to applaud it!

This tale of family dysfunction was light yet deep in parts, really creating some tension and stress between the members of the family. I wanted to shake her and hug her all at the same time!

In Grown Ups Norwegian author, Marie Aubert, takes on a topic which many women struggle with as they approach their forties. Nearing the dreaded age Ida is successful in her career as an architect, but being single she knows that the window of opportunity for having children is slowly closing. Unsure if she wants to have children and not wanting to commit to a life-changing decision just yet, she decides to open an “egg account” to freeze her eggs.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/grown-ups-marie-aubert/

A short, nevertheless very thought-provoking book! 

Through this honest portrayal of antipathic Ida and her dysfunctional family, you are pulled into this eternal debate of “what does it mean to be a “grown-up”?

Ida is 40, single, and demonstrates quite a few self destructing traits. Life as she believes she should have hasn’t materialised for her, but does she really want it to? 

In her eyes, her sister Marthe is the opposite of who Ida aspires to be, but somehow has it all: a boyfriend Kristoffer, a step daughter Olea, and, coming as an unwanted surprise to Ida, a baby on the way. Ida wants nothing more than to overtake her.. or does she really?

Their mother has settled with her long term boyfriend Stein, having had to suffer through the girls father deserting them when they were young. She sparks up the siblings rivalry but is it on purpose or is she simply oblivious?

In this very clever book, wonderfully translated by Rosie Hedger, Marie Aubert takes no kid gloves to show that as much as we’re sometimes pretending, in the end aren’t we just still kids playing grown ups? 

Tantrums, jealousy, lies, selfishness, deceptions, cries for attention, as much as Ida and Marthe try to pretend to have it all figured out and together, they’re bickering and behaving like 6 year old, experiencing the same feelings they did when they were young. 

What shapes our behaviour? Does being a parent, owning a cabin, driving a boat, really means being a grown up? “You have to let kids be kids”.. but do we ever really stop being kids?

This was my first ever intentional translated book I've ever read.
It was out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it!

Love the sibling rivalry, what I found refreshing was that usually when you're reading from a main character's point of view you are in their shoes and appreciate where they're coming from.
Ida is jealous, resentful, selfish - but I STILL couldn't help feeling some sort of affection towards her.

Full video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6fbVnBD_M

This is a short read but it packs a punch!

40 year old Ida, younger sister Marthe, Marthe's husband Kristoffer and Kristoffer's six-year-old daughter from a previous marriage are at the family's old childhood holiday cabin celebrating Ida and Marthe's mother's 65th birthday.

For a short story, just over 100 pages, there is a lot to unpack. Both women have struggled with fertility. Marthe has now fallen pregnant and Ida realises that she may have left having a family too late and looks into freezing her eggs. She was the type to just meet men through Tinder, not even caring if they were married, and never settling down. It is now that she sees children everywhere, that she panics that she will never be a mother.

It is a very character driven novel but I will be honest and say that I didn't love any of the characters, I think they all had their downsides.

Ida seems to have put her career before anything else, aiming to be the poster child. There is a lot of sibling rivalry between her and Marthe, even now in their 30s/early 40s.

Grown Ups is an interesting look at family dynamics, fertility and what it is like to be a grown up without children of your own.

This was quite a short story but with a lot packed into it. Quite a toxic family that I unfortunately did not connect with any of them. They all had their various issues. I would however have liked to read more about what happened next as the story felt like it could continue.

‘Grown ups’ is a complex, layered story with a long novella length.
Aubert writes the story of Ida who reunites with her sister for their mother’s 65th birthday. Ida has reached the age of forty and is panicked that her hope of motherhood is slipping away and as with all domestic dramas things soon become tense as Marthe flaunts her ‘perfect’ family.
Personally I didn’t really like the characters in this novel because both of the sisters display an awful rivalry where they try to outpace one another by unfairly involving others. Of course the relationships drive the plot so this dysfunction pushes forward the story as the two women try and regain some sort of bond.
I liked the very frank style of writing and the novel as a whole was very thought-provoking as the sisters progress on their individual journeys but more importantly look past themselves to the other people in their lives. Within a short novel I did feel like the characters developed well but instead of liking any of them I saw them as extremely honest representations which really made them a lot more poignant by the ending.

Translated from Norwegian by Rosie Hedger, the book follows Ida – a forty year old architect grappling with her fertility.

The book was a lot shorter than I originally thought it would be and it wasn’t necessarily sweet. What it was though was a funny, sometimes uncomfortable piece of fiction about fertility, family and finding yourself at forty.

Admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Ida. At first, she annoyed me a great deal. As I read on, though, I began to see why she behaves in the way that she does and – despite being several years younger – I did see parts of myself in her. Despite her flaws, I did feel sorry for her as she grappled with so many emotions and difficult family relationships.

The story takes place over a long weekend as Ida is reunited with her younger sister, Marthe, Marthe’s husband Kristoffer and his daughter Olea for their mother’s birthday. As much as I enjoy reading sweet family gatherings, I loved the often uncomfortable dynamic that was presented. Not only did it make this short story feel weightier, it also gave the book a great amount of tension. Despite the overriding feeling I got from this book being tension, it was also sensitive, emotional and littered with the kind of tongue in cheek humour that I love.

The only problem with this book, due of the length of it, was that the ending wasn’t really an ending. There was a conclusion but it was so open that I (admittedly) spent a lot of time thinking I’d missed a few pages out (and actively checking!). Then again, I think the lack of a “proper” ending shows how beautifully simple this book is.

Regardless, Grown Ups was a tense but beautiful piece of short fiction about womanhood, family relationships and fertility.

This was a short novel that packed a weighty punch. At only 150 pages it is more of a novella, but the author manages to convey all she needs to in that shorter form. This novel is about family, their dynamics, subtle nuances and shared memories. Having read this just after Helga Flatland’s One Last Time, I can see how successfully the author managed to dissect her chosen family, since Flatland’s novel was perfection. Aubert is also incredibly successful at shining a light into the darker corners of family.

The book starts solely from 40 year old Ida’s perspective. She has several long term threads running through her life: her lack of a long-term relationship and disastrous attempts at dating, her thoughts on motherhood as it starts to become less likely she will have a family and her distant relationship with the family - particularly her sister. Marthe is the younger sister and their rivalry has been there from an early age. Their ages may have changed but their behaviour is reminiscent of small children. There isn’t an open and honest exchange, just sly digs and glances, scornful responses, loaded questions and trying to one-up each other. They seem to be locked in this battle with a view to being their mother’s favourite. Far from putting an end to the bickering, their mother actively seems to enjoy it. She feigns frustration, but pours fuel on the fire the next second and seems to actively enjoy baiting Ida, whose self-esteem is already severely shaky. I wondered whether Mum was actually the puppet master, pulling the sister’s strings and gaining pleasure from their fighting over her. I didn’t like their mother at all and found myself hoping for her painful death! Or at least a loss of speech to give these girls a break.

Tension mounts as the family gather at their coastal cottage for their mother’s 65th birthday, This is a modern ‘blended’ family with none of the humour that I usually expect from the genre. Marthe’s partner Kristoffer is joining them along with his daughter Olea - from a previous relationship. They also bring their mother’s partner Stein. In an incredible show of narcissism, Marthe takes over proceedings by announcing her pregnancy. As she takes stock, and receives heartbreaking news, Ida let’s fly at her sister. Is this going to irreparably damage their relationship, not to mention others in the family? I loved how there was no moralising or judgement in the depiction of the family. They are left to themselves and we are left with many questions too. Could the sister’s relationship have gone any other way? How much did Ida’s news contribute to her breaking a confidence. I had a feeling that the author wasn’t the type to tie up all her lose ends and she doesn’t, but it’s a better book for it. Despite her difficulties, Ida is likeable, but will she become lonely as time goes on without close family to sustain her. It makes us think about having it all and whether time alone to reflect might change some of her outlook. This was an elegant book, with every word perfectly judged and nothing too much.

Grown Ups looks at the life of forty-year-old perennially single architect, Ida, and the dysfunctional relationships that prevail when she is reunited with her family. Narrated in its entirety by Ida as she travels to the family cabin, the book touches upon the pressure on women to have children and friction between sisters. Translated from the Norwegian by Rosie Hedger the story reads fluently and captures not only the dry humour of the narrator but her mercurial nature and the result is a poignant and rather compelling piece of compact fiction.

Younger sister, Marthe, has overtaken Ida in the race to be considered a functioning adult and from Ida’s perspective she has not only been well and truly left behind but is undeniably lonely. The last time she had anything like a boyfriend was two years ago and having made the decision to freeze her eggs she feels ready to face Marthe and her husband and stepdaughter. Ida hasn’t even announced her dramatic news before indulged Marthe reveals her own surprise and their mother descends. As tensions rise the insecure sisters become locked in a battle of one-upmanship with old resentments and animosities being aired. It’s not pretty by any means but Marie Aubert does an incredible job of making Ida both sympathetic and engaging whilst also conveying the turmoil inside her head as she realises that she may never have a child. What is interesting is that Ida isn’t even desperate to be a mother and concedes that she doesn’t really like children but it is societal expectations and comparing herself to Marthe that have resulted in her anxiety. Ida’s Tinder activity is a constant refrain throughout the story and whilst it’s a source of amusement to her sister and brother-in-law it is evident how much it has damaged her self-esteem as she searches through old contacts and yearns for intimacy.

Given plot isn’t the main driver of the book I found it a surprisingly suspenseful little read largely because of Ida’s honesty and the unfiltered snapshot of relationships within her family that she offered. The rivalry and jealousy between Ida and Marthe, and Ida’s willingness to provoke mischief and meddle with her sister, makes for an element of unpredictability and I was hooked to see how far Ida would go. The story also offers a look at how, despite the passing of years, family members revert to type and seem to regress into childhood roles when they come together. Whilst the book is left open-ended it provides plenty of food of thought. The story will no doubt resonate more strongly with mothers but as a single and childless forty-year-old I could certainly empathise with Ida’s sense of loneliness. Short, droll and highly readable, Grown Ups is a slice of life that rings painfully true.

Grown Ups opens with Ida, the narrator, a forty-year-old architect travelling on a bus to the family's summer house, whilst reflecting on her visit immediately beforehand to a fertility clinic in Sweden. The family is meeting at the summer house for Ida's mum 65th birthday and Ida's younger sister, Marthe along with her partner, Kristoffer is expecting a baby. Full of simmering tension, Grown Ups is a short (160 page) intense character study of dysfunctional relationships, that also portrays the loneliness of unchosen childlessness. With the addition of some irony and humorous touches by Marie Aubert, this is a very worthy read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Pushkin Press via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Grown Ups is told from the point of view of forty-year-old architect Ida, who we meet just as she is off to the lakeside family cabin in Norway to celebrate her mother's sixty-fifth birthday.

Right from the word go, we are aware of the deep feelings of panic that have taken over Ida's every waking moment, as she dwells on her life as a single, childless, career woman painfully aware of the ticking of her body clock, and her plans to freeze some of her eggs as soon as this little family trip is over. Not surprisingly, she feels rather uncomfortable at the thought of sharing the next few days with her younger sister Marthe, her partner Kristoffer and his daughter Olea, especially since they have been trying for a baby of their own.

Almost as soon as Ida is through the door of the cabin our perception that this is going to be far from a cosy little family reunion is confirmed. You can almost cut the atmosphere with a knife when Marthe shares some unexpected news with her sister that brings all the old tension and rivalry to the surface - and seems to elicit the worst in them all.

Jealous of what Marthe has apparently come by so easily, Ida can't help herself from taking pot-shots at every opportunity, doing her best to come between her sister and her partner, and her sister and Olea, in order to prove that she is far more deserving of such domestic bliss, and Marthe responds to every jibe with petulant ripostes of her own. Matters only seem to get worse when their mother and her partner Stein turn up to complete the family party, and as the fur begins to fly, the edginess builds to a massive bust-up that has consequences for everyone in the firing line.

This is such a potent little gem of a novel that paints a sharply observed picture of the perfect dysfunctional family, with a twist of Norwegian intensity, impressively translated by Rosie Hedger. Almost everyone here feels the weight of expectation placed upon them by family, friends and notions of how they should be living grown up lives, and Aubert weaves the resulting tension beautifully into a tightly constructed framework shaped around the age old rivalry between siblings. I think anyone with brothers or sisters reading this book will recognise much of the pattern of events at the heart of this story, but my goodness, the savagery between Ida and Marthe is way off the scale of normal sibling dynamics.

The beauty of this novel lies in the way Aubert sprinkles observations of grown up behaviour throughout, with some wonderfully emotive reflections on pivotal coming of age moments, and how she provides insight into exactly how the relationships between her characters have been allowed to deteriorate to the point of, potentially, no return. Ida's flashbacks into the past reveal a childhood filled with unresolved issues around her parents' divorce, that have influenced not only the relationships between the two daughters and their mother, but also their relationships with men in general. Ida in particular seems doomed to swing constantly between desperate neediness and distant coolness with unavailable men, while Marthe is used to being pandered to in her whims and expects everyone to go along with her demands. There is no doubt that this is a family desperately in need of some therapy, as a group and individually - except perhaps for the intriguing Stein, who sees all and treats us to the occasional sage comment on the proceedings.

For a short novel, at just over 150 pages, Grown Ups has the delicious atmosphere of a dramatic stage production that packs a powerful punch, and it takes you through a whole gamut of emotions all the way to the unsettling knife edge of an ending. It's outstanding!