“Mulây” is a tragicomedy by Norway’s most popular contemporary writer, the author of such bestsellers as “Naive. Super” and “Under the Influence of a Woman,” “The Best Country in the World,” and “U,” “Doppler,” and “Volvo Trucks.” Critics consider it his best book since the mega-hit “Naive. Super”—just as humane, as unmistakably naively branded, and yet also not quite simple.
The parents of eighteen-year-old Julia have died—they crashed a plane over Africa, managing to send her a farewell SMS. Now she lives alone in a large house in a prestigious district of Oslo, manages a Polish tile-fitter and guest worker, Kshysztof, participates in an amateur theater production at the Christian Gymnasium, rides horses with a friend, and dreams of committing suicide.
After the first failed attempt, Oslo proves too cramped for her—and so Julia sets off to wander the world. Without stopping her diary, started on the advice of her psychotherapist, she will see Brussels and Bangkok, Paris and the Canaries, London and Madrid—and even take the controls.