I really love books that just provide a brief snapshot into the lives of ordinary people, so when I heard about this book of 40 year-old Ida struggling to come to terms that life as a ‘grown up’ isn’t what she imagined it immediately connected with me and I jumped at the chance to be part of this tour.

Whilst I am not in my 40s, I do recognise and relate to how Ida was feeling in regards to feeling left behind by your peers. Throughout the novella, Aubert skillfully navigates the difficulties of what it means to be a ‘grown up’ even when you believe you’re failing as one. I really liked Ida when we were first introduced to her, I thought she was logical and blunt, yet vulnerable. However, as we begin to spend more time with her through the novella we get to see that there is a much different, less likeable, side to her too, one which is insecure, paranoid and jealous. It’s incredible how Aubert manages to develop Ida in such a complex way in the matter of a few pages. The different side of her creeps up and it’s incredibly impressive how Ida can say or do something and then, just a couple of pages later, she will say or do the same thing yet it feels completely different.

The way the family dynamic was crafted was incredibly interesting, it’s clear that there is years of tension and history between them all before we even find out about certain aspects of the family. All of the adults seemed to have some kind of issue that made the family dynamic dysfunctional as a whole, but still believable, and I’m sure a lot of people would be able to relate to an aspect of this. I really liked seeing Ida and her sister, Marthe, interact with each other – it was very difficult to work out if their rivalry (of sorts) was an ordinary sibling relationship or if it went deeper than that. There are times where it is clear one way or another, but I enjoyed how it wasn’t always immediately obvious.

Although, on the surface, this novella is a snapshot into a family getaway to celebrate their mother’s 65th birthday, it quickly becomes clear that it isn’t the focus at all. Instead of a family celebration we witness unsettling interactions between characters, which can become dangerous. Additionally, Aubert expertly illustrates the different pressures put on women by society when it comes to the idea of a family unit and a woman’s purpose. Which calls into question whether Ida truly wants to be a mother or if she simply doesn’t want to be lonely.

Overall, this was a really poignant read with humour and drama scattered amongst the pages. The length of the novella makes it a perfect Sunday morning read which can gently open your eyes to the complexities of family, and leave you slightly raw at the brutal honesty of it all too.

Ida and Marthe are sisters. They’re grown-ups now but they still fall into teenage behaviours like only siblings can do.

Grown Ups is a debut novel about sisterhood and motherhood in a time where we feel like we have our whole life in front of us when we suddenly have to face the truth of our bodies.

Maria Aubert’s novel is an ugly story about jealousy and resentment, unsolved family conflicts and frustrations. How can you be a fully functioning grown up of 40 years old when you’re still processing the burden of being forced to act as a grown up since you were a child?

You probably won’t find lovable characters in this book, but you will certainly relate to one side or other of their personalities, and this will let you enjoy the book as an easy read, one to recommend to your friends and family so you can passionately discuss it with them while you argue on who’s more of an Ida and who’s more of a Marthe.

"Life for me is the same as it was five years ago, ten, even; I have a slightly larger apartment, a slightly better salary, slightly more projects to juggle at work, slightly duller skin, a few more grey hairs that I pay my hairdresser two thousand kroner every three months to make disappear. I sleep alone and I wake up alone and I’m alone when I go to work and alone when I get back home, I won’t moan about it, you don’t want to become one of those people who moans on and on about things. But being alone is a circle that only ever expands, and if a boyfriend doesn’t turn up, if no one turns up with whom I can use the eggs in the bank, there might be five or ten or twenty or thirty years ahead of me just like this, all the same from here on in."

Grown Ups is translated by Rosie Hedger from Marie Grønborg Aubert's 2019 Norwegian original Voksne Mennesker.

The story opens with our narrator Ida on a bus travelling to the family's summer house, glowering at an annoying child behind her, while she reflects on her visit immediately beforehand to a fertility clinic in Sweden:

"The summer holidays were just around the corner, it was lovely and warm in Gothenburg and I’d reserved a table somewhere to savour a nice lunch with some expensive white wine, to toast the fact I’d be spending my savings on having my eggs removed and banked, on opening an egg account."

Ida, an architect, recently turned forty, she is single, and went to the clinic to investigate having her eggs frozen to start a family in future. At the family house: We’re celebrating Mum’s sixty-fifth birthday tomorrow evening, Marthe and Kristoffer and Olea and me and Mum and Stein, we’re all going to eat prawns and drink wine. Mum said it could double up as a celebration for my fortieth too, I told her that wasn’t necessary, it’s three months too late for it anyway.

Stein is Ida's mother's new partner (Ida's father left for another woman) when Ida was 13, Marthe her younger sister, Kristoffer is Marthe's partner and Olea is Kristoffer's daughter, aged 6, from a previous relationship. Marthe, who suffers from Crohn's disease, has been trying to get pregnant for some years, suffering a series of early miscarriages, but on arrival tells the family that she is now 15 weeks pregnant, to Ida's shock rather than her pleasure:

"I hadn’t believed it, not really. My friends have all overtaken me, each and every one of them, but now Marthe too, somewhere inside I had always believed that nothing would come of it, that things wouldn’t ever change, that Marthe would always be there in need of consolation, that she wouldn’t ever overtake me. She can’t overtake me."

Ida sees herself as the "good daughter" and Marthe as lazy, needy, less pretty, and also a poor step-mother to Olea. But the reader may well see things differently, and Ida's main trait, as Stein observes, appears to be her desire to interfere in others' lives, particularly Marthe's.

A short, intense and well-observed character study of dysfunctional relationships. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

I quite enjoyed Grown Ups by Marie Aubert. A début book translated from Norwegian by Rosie Hedger, the book follows Ida as she tries to navigate life. The book is short and quick to get through.

Marie Aubert does explore motherhood and fertility, mirroring it to real life it was devastating to read as it was interesting. There’s sibling rivalry which plays a huge role in the book, actually, it is what drives it. I enjoyed reading about it.

What didn’t work for me is the ending. It felt a bit rushed and there were a few loose plot points that were left hanging.

Grown Ups is a short book that packs a punch, and a wonderful read all round.

(4.5/5 stars)
Grown Ups is a short, yet impactful read which delves into topics ranging from sibling rivalry to fertility problems. It follows a forty year old woman, Ida, and her trip to a cabin by a Norwegian fjord to celebrate her mum's birthday. There, we become aware of the somewhat strained relationship Ida has with her sister in particular, and also her mum’s new boyfriend. Aubert pulls us deep into the family drama and expertly captures the depth and intricacies of a sibling relationship. While our protagonist isn’t exactly the most likeable of characters, as someone with quite questionable morals and childish resentment, she is still, at times, very relatable. I personally found her reflections on the world of Tinder hilarious, and as someone who has navigated the trials and tribulations of the app myself, I often found myself agonising with her.

The language in this book is incredibly accessible, and the chatty style of the novel pulls us deep into Ida’s thoughts. The idyllic setting of the Norwegian fjord is also very beautifully described, and I was hugely jealous reading about the family’s boat trips on the water and hikes in the hills. Hedger does an excellent job of retaining Ida’s chatty, satirical voice throughout her translation and it reads incredibly smoothly.

I’m excited to read some more of Aubert’s work and am hugely grateful to Pushkin Press and Netgalley for this eARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Ida is 40. She’s an architect. She’s navigating Tinder and considering freezing her eggs. She’s not where she thought she would be at 40.

This book is set in the family cabin on the shores of a Norwegian fjord. The family , Ida her younger sister, husband and stepdaughter and their mother and her partner are there to celebrate their mother’s 65th birthday. It’s a taut and uncomfortable few days and an excellent examination of family dynamics , sibling rivalry and how easily we can hurt the people we are closest too.

The relationship and rivalry between Ida and her sister Marthe is really well captured it’s almost painful to read at times. The characters are flawed, unlikeable at times but they aren’t evil. Just guilty of the flaws we all have at points in our life, flaws that can flare when in close proximity to immediate family- spitefulness, laziness, jealousy, attention seeking. Yet despite this, I liked them. I recognised them in people I know and I wanted everything to be ok for them.

I really enjoyed the Norwegian setting and the translation from Norwegian to English felt flawless, it didn’t feel like nuance or tone was missed, which is sometimes the case with translated novels I’ve read.

An compromising,slightly dark, bittersweet little book. I loved this. Even when it made me feel uncomfortable and a little bereft.

4.5 - 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



Grown Ups is out now. I received an advance digital copy with thanks to @netgalley and the publishers @puskinpress. As always, this is an honest review.
I will probably buy it paperback for the gorgeous cover and it’s one I’ll re-read.

Ida is 40, perpetually single, moderately successful, still childless, and fed up. Travelling to her family’s summer cabin to celebrate her mum’s 60th birthday, she is trying to stay positive, but Marthe, her younger, married sister, has news that will upset the family’s delicate balance, and push Ida in uncomfortable ways.

Many of the decisions Ida makes and actions she takes are hard to read, sometimes downright spiteful, but it’s hard not to also feel an awful lot of sympathy for her: having tried her whole life to do the right thing, her sense of being denied her happiness is palpable.

If you are someone facing infertility issues at the moment I would maybe suggest holding off on this book, but otherwise it’s a great insight into an unlikeable character’s mind. My one small complaint is that I wish it had been longer, in a very slim book many bombshells are dropped but there’s not a huge sense of resolution by the end (for me at least) and I wanted to know more!

This is a short book (around 160 pages) but a perfectly formed story. The author is Norwegian and the book has been translated into English by Rosie Hedger. It won literary prizes in Norway.

It’s very much a character-driven tale focused on Ida, a single woman who has just turned forty and feels her biological clock ticking. With a plan beginning to come together to freeze her eggs, Ida heads off to the family cabin by the sea to celebrate her mother’s birthday with the family but simmering tensions with her sister over some unexpected news threaten to boil over as matters come to a head.

None of the adult characters are particularly likeable - Ida herself is desperately insecure and resentful - but the dysfunctional set up and their (at times) infantile behaviour makes for great reading.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Ida - I felt the author did a super job of portraying the loneliness of childlessness where it is not by choice.

The idyllic setting on the fjord made me long for far-flung places and there were enough moments of dark humour to make it not completely bleak.

A really enjoyable little novel. 4/5 ⭐️

*Grown Ups will be published on 3 June 2021. I was grateful to read an advance digital copy courtesy of the publishers @pushkin_press via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

For such a small book this certainly packs a punch.

Painfully honest, and dark with a hint of humour. Grown ups tells it like it is, the struggles of fitting into what society expects of us, trying to live the best way and how difficult it is to make those decisions. Looking at the different stages of a womans life and family relationships.

Is the fact that I swallowed the book in one evening already a recommendation in itself? In my opinion, a bit so. "Grown Ups" is a short (about 150 pages) novel about relationships (oh, what a cliche!), the desire for motherhood (ah, done many times!), the need for acceptance (nothing new!), jealousy between siblings (who didn't feel that?!). I love books about people and relationships. I can read the book about the sisterly relationship many times, provided that the relationship is not stereotyped, polished, superficially described. And "Grown Ups" talks about such a relationship very well. There is no need to write about the plot, because the action involves reflection, the behavior of the characters and interactions between them, and this is the flashpoint of this book.!

The relationship between the main character and her sister was well written. I have the impression that the author has hidden from readers certain events from the past, which not only influenced the perception of our narrator by others, but also her relationship with the surroundings. At one point, I felt that I entered the narrator's head to such an extent that I took over her perception of others and her perspective that I felt just as attacked by certain words or the behavior of others as she was. Only after a while I realized that perhaps I do not know everything, that the author deliberately applied a one-sided perspective here and limited our field of view to this one person. At some point, however, the desire to interpret the relationship in this family forced the use of a more objective, broader perspective.

Well, this is another inconspicuous novel, which, in its simplicity, the commonness of the subject matter and the inability to use high-flown, extraordinary motives, gave me the opportunity to read about what is real, juicy, uncompromising, everyday, real and difficult to assess. Because although this relationship is far from my relationship with my sister, reading about this case showed me many feelings, emotions, behaviors and thoughts.

I like to read about people I believe in, who are wrong, are not afraid to be uncompromising, are not afraid of their thoughts, are imperfect in their relations with others and who are different from me - I do not deny them the truthfulness or the possibility of having different views, observations, lifestyle only because they are different from mine. "Grown Ups" is a great condensed novel about the fact that as adults we often unconsciously behave like children. I highly recommend!

“I lift my hand stupidly in something resembling a wave instead, walk to the bus with my stupid arms hanging down by my stupid sides [and] sit on the bus alone with my stupid arms hanging down by my stupid sides.”

The story follows 40 year lda and her family on an awkward cabin retreat. Ida and her sister Marthe have never grown out of their childhood rivalry and spend the trip competing to be their mothers ‘good girl’, whilst simultaneously facing internal battles around fertility and self-esteem.

I’m really intrigued whether the translation from Norwegian to English played a part in the raw emotion and delivery of Ida’s thoughts. Despite her constant efforts to undermine her sister, I found her likeable and even relatable at points. Ida was tired of everyones expectations of her, moulded from a perceived expectation of how 40 year old women should be.

Ida’s Tinder dates feature only as a subplot to help the reader understand her better, but really humanise her character and offer an insight into her loneliness. She knows she is scraping the barrel and yet, can’t stop herself continuing down a path of self-destruction.

I loved the book. Truly. I expected another Bridget Jones, the unrealistically lucky 32 year old but discovered Ida, the woman still finding her way. The book is simple but effective at only 160 pages, offering a complete story with an appropriately unfinished ending.

Bravo Marie Aubert, 5/5. I will absolutely seek out more Scandi literature.

Ida is a single forty year old woman who is still trying to navigate life, dating and her growing isolation from her family. While on a visit to the family vacation cabin for her mother's sixty fifth birthday, events come to a head as jealousy and resentment threaten to ruin the celebrations.

For a short novel, there is a lot of discuss here. Ida in many respects is the stereotypical 'career woman'. All her life she has tried to be the good daughter, the one who gets the perfect grades and the great job. Anything to get the attention of her mother, who she feels favours her younger sister Marthe. Marthe is the spoilt one, the one who always got her own way, and Ida resents that Marthe now seems to have everything she wants. A husband, a ready made family, a perfect home, and a baby on the way. So when she's given the opportunity to ruin it for Marthe, Ida sees her opening to hurt her sister. There's no moral dilemma for Ida - she just wants her sister to feel the way she feels, she wants her to notice the loneliness. And these decisions make Ida a rather unlikeable character.

In fact all of the characters are pretty irredeemable. Marthe and husband Kristoffer are selfish and self centered. Ida is obviously resentful and mean, and their mother and her partner are equally as insufferable. None of them seem to like each other very much, and don't seem to know the first thing about each other. It's all very toxic and complicated, and the sisterly dynamic in particular is difficult to understand and accept. There certainly no love lost between them, with bickering and petty arguments breaking out from the minute the two are reunited.

This wasn't an easy read for me. It's very character focused, and when the characters are all so brazenly horrible as these I find it hard to care about the storyline. Unfortunately that's what happened here, and as the story progressed I grew less and less interested in what would happen. However, I did enjoy the writing and found it very fast paced, which I enjoy. I also thought that the ending cuts off very sharply, leaving nothing resolved.

Interesting insight into certain family dynamics but ultimately I found this lacking in substance and likeable characters.

I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.

In this short novel, a 40-year-old woman, Ida, is going to spend a holiday at her family's cabin in Norway with her family. Prior to the trip, she travels to Sweden to get tests to see if she can freeze her eggs. It becomes quite obvious quite quickly that Ida and her sister do not have a particularly healthy relationship and this ends up boiling over during the book. A really interesting look at a dysfunctional family. The main character isn't particularly likable, she makes a lot of morally grey decisions, which I personally find really interesting in fiction.

I think I would have rated this 5 stars had the ending been better, I thought it left a few things unresolved but didn't have the drama of a cliff hanger, it just sort of fizzled out.

This Norwegian novel has a supremely unlikeable narrator who is a very childish forty year old architect. Ida visits her family’s cabin and ponders on ageing, fertility, and relationships while ruining the break for her family by being generally petulant. There’s something pleasant in hating someone so much, but I can’t say that I loved reading Grown Ups. Maybe if the bad news that Ida gets had come sooner I could have let her off with it being a negative emotional reaction, but it didn’t - she was just a really bad person.

I rather enjoyed this interesting little (translated) novella. I went through a love hate relationship with main character Ida - at times I sympathised with her for feeling she had failed in life being unmarried and childless at 40. Yet at other times I thought she was rather petty and cruel towards her sister Marthe.

I loved the Scandavaian setting with the descriptions of the beach house and boat, it made me want to go on holiday and lie in a hammock! I would recommend this book to fans of Olive. A nice easy read but I was hoping for a little more from the ending.

I really enjoyed Grown Ups!
This short novella talks about how it feels to be a grown up, even though you feel like time is going by too fast. Ida, the protagonist, finds herself single at 40, and decides its time to freeze her eggs, so she can have a chance at having children later on in life. She decides to visit her sister, who is vacationing at their cabin, and is there with her family. There is animosity between sisters, and old tensions and resentments resurface throughout the novel.
I thought this was a brilliant little book, and I really enjoyed the scenery and setting (the Norwegian fjords).
Another incredible translated novel by Pushkin!

Sisters Ida and Marthe have planned to spend some days together at their cabin close to the sea where they will be joined by their mother and her partner. Ida is reluctant to go there, with her 40th birthday only a couple of weeks ago and still no father for prospective children in view, she knows that her window of becoming a mother is getting closer and closer. This is why she decided to freeze some of her eggs. Yet, it does not hinder her from negative feelings towards Marthe who, now pregnant and stepmother of beautiful 6-year-old Olea, seems – as always – to get everything she wants. Hard feelings accompany Ida and slowly turn their holiday together into a catastrophe.

I totally enjoyed Marie Aubert’s novel as I could easily sympathise with her narrator and protagonist. Additionally, there is some fine irony and humour in the text which make it a great read. The relationship between sisters quite often is all but easy and even as grown-ups, hard feelings and emotional injuries from the childhood can sit deep and hinder them from ever having a healthy bond.

Ida obviously is envious, her sister not only has a living husband but also a lovely stepdaughter and she’s pregnant. Even though Ida is a successful architect, she has never managed to establish a functioning relationship with a partner and feels lonely and somehow failed in life. Always being second, this is how she has grown up, no matter which achievements she reached, there was always Marthe who was ill and thus spoilt those rare moments of joy for Ida. Their mother does not seem to be aware of the difference she makes between the girls – yet, one has also to take into account that we only get Ida’s point of view which quite naturally is not only limited but highly biased.

“It’s not right That it should be so easy for others and so hard for me, I don’t get it, if there’s some sort of formula, a code that others know about, one they’ve known since they were young but which I’ve never quite grasped.”

Ida gets worked up about her sister and is willing to destroy her sister’s life when she is drunk one evening. This is rather tragic to observe and Ida turns into a pitiable character who does not realise that she will be even lonelier if she loses these last persons around her. She is aware of this but cannot act differently.

Marie Aubert’s debut is elegantly narrated, yet, the story leaves you with mixed feelings. It is joyful at times but the dysfunctional family is also an emotional challenge.

Unfortunately I had to stop reading this book. I really wanted to give it a try but it just doesn’t flow right. Whether it is because the format doesn’t have chapters, I don’t know but I didn’t really like any of the characters apart from the child, Olea.

Disappointed but thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this ARC.

A book that drew me in from the first pages.Loved the setting the characters the family disfunction,This was a short novel I was enjoying it so much wish it had gone longer.#netgalley #pushkinpress.

Ok I really didn’t get this book. I don’t know whether Marie Aubert planned on writing a main character who was really unlikeable or whether that’s just how she came across to me. She is a serial flirt and even tries to decide her sisters husband (ew) and is so competitive with her sister. She’s battling turning 40 and still having no kids but cannot care for her niece at all on her own. I was so glad this book was short otherwise I would have stopped reading it.