At the time Anne Cathrine Bomann was writing her novel, Denmark had just authorized its doctors to diagnose prolonged grief in people who remain “stuck” in that state.
It is this whole complex question which is at the heart of his second novel, a dystopia which is not so far from the present (it is 2024), but which raises a fascinating societal debate.
You should know that Anne Cathrine Bomann is above all a psychologist. This young Danish author first made herself known with Agathe, a first novel of great beauty, translated by La Peuplade in 2019, which drew inspiration from her practice. So here she is again in familiar waters, mixing her experience, her questions as a practitioner and the fruits of her imagination – a formula which is certainly successful for her and which we hope to see her borrow again in her future titles.
We’re here at Aarhus University, where Anna and Shadi are studying psychology and working on a dissertation on grief. Their professor, Thorsten, is involved in a study investigating a revolutionary new drug, Callocaine – a “grief pill” created by chemist Elisabeth Nordin, director of research at Danish Pharma. During the final phase of the project, as the drug is about to be marketed, the results reveal an ethical problem that risks compromising everything.
Outside the range is the story of a great medical breakthrough which is far from unanimously agreed upon – entirely fictional, but which touches on very concrete issues: should we consider prolonged mourning as a psychological illness that need to be cured, just like depression? Is it better to favor therapies over medications, since they have no side effects?
Like a four-voice puzzle, the novel is told in turn by these four characters who gravitate in one way or another around Callocaine and for whom the question of mourning resonates in a very different way – having lived a loss, a lack, an absence that they cannot fill. A daring construction which allows the author to very gently install, with her fine pen, of sober elegance, a discreet suspense which grows as we advance in the plot, always with this calm and controlled tone which give plenty of time to think.
