Excellent French praise for Laura Lindstedt’s MON AMIE NATALIA

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We are extremely happy to share some excellent praise from France for one of Finland’s most dynamic novelists, Laura Lindstedt and her novel Mon Amie Natalia – My Friend Natalia – an erotic story of an ambitious therapist’s sessions with an unforgettable patient.

“Laura Lindstedt has written a very successful second novel that takes us into the heart of a therapy.” “A fascinating and original text.” “A text that asks real questions about female sexuality and the place of women in society.” – Maria Ferragu, Page

“Irreverent, caustic, original, full of artistic references”
– Virginie Bloch-Lainé, Libération

”Little by little this strange psychotherapy is bearing its fruit. Natalia liberates herself…/… Through it, the author analyzes the stereotypes of the caregiver and the patient, the balance of power and the stereotypes of gender and identity with impertinence and subtlety.” – Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret, Salon Litteraire

Download the full English manuscript and praise sheet for MY FRIEND NATALIA by clicking here
PRAISE

“Sly, intriguing…. The deeper, indeed more layered, mystery is, it emerges, the novel’s chimerical narrator.” – Hermione Hoby, New York Times Book Review

“Lindstedt’s novel reads like the love child of a pornographer and a high theorist: Derrida meets Anaïs Nin…/ Bawdy and beguiling.” – Kirkus Reviews

“This novel is about the subtle division of power. The one who has the words has the power. And the great storyteller in this setting is Natalia. The therapy sessions are a celebration of literature and art (think Niki de Saint Phalle, Georgia O’Keeffe, but also the tragedies of Greek mythology). Natalia plays an intellectual game about the appropriation of stories.” –Het Parool, Netherlands

WATCH LAURA DESCRIBE THE CREATIVE PROCESS BEHIND HER NOVEL

MY FRIEND NATALIA
by Laura Lindstedt

Natalia cannot stop thinking about sex. A mesmerizing tale of one woman’s potent affliction by award-winning Finnish writer Laura Lindstedt. Narrated by an unnamed, ungendered therapist who leaps at the chance to employ their most experimental methods, My Friend Natalia offers a gripping examination of the power dynamics always present but rarely ever spoken about in therapy. “Something flared within me,” the therapist notes, “and it wasn’t merely sympathy, the emotion I feel for most of my clients. It was more like a sudden experience of harmony, wholly inappropriate given the circumstances.”

Rights sold:

FINLAND: Teos (orig.)
ESTONIA: Rahva Raamat AS
FRANCE: Gallimard
GERMANY: DTV
HUNGARY: Scolar Kiado
ITALY: Elliot Edizioni
LITHUANIA: BALTO
NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM: De Bezige Bij
NORWAY: Oktober
ROMANIA: Humanitas Fiction
SWEDEN: Norstedts
USA: W.W. Norton / Liveright

About author


Laura Lindstedt

Laura Lindstedt (b. 1976) became a critical darling with her adoption-themed debut novel Scissors (Sakset, Teos 2007), which earned her a nomination for the Finlandia Prize, the country’s most prestigious literary honour. Lindstedt’s second novel Oneiron (Teos 2015), a work of speculative fiction that takes place in the mysterious moments that follow one’s death, earned her the coveted Finlandia Prize of 2015 and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2017. Lindstedt’s success has continued with My Friend Natalia (Teos 2019) which has earned critical acclaim and has been sold to 12 territories. Together with author Sinikka Vuola, she has authored 101 tapaa tappaa aviomies (101 Ways to Kill Your Husband, Siltala 2022) which has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize of 2024.

She is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis on French author Nathalie Sarraute.

Read more Author's page

Bibliography


2019, Literary Fiction

My Friend Natalia

Laura Lindstedt


2015, Literary Fiction

Oneiron

Laura Lindstedt


2007, Literary Fiction

Scissors

Laura Lindstedt

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