I like to move across different book authors and genres – fiction, biographies, and non-fiction. Most books I find are curated from reviews and announcements of new titles from established writers that I enjoy. Occasionally a new voice comes along, and I settle into an uncertain reading journey. So, as I paged through book reviews, I came across a relatively unknown Danish author (Solvej Balle) who has crafted a series of small books on a well-worn theme, a person caught in a repeating day.
This is not a new concept; we have all read variations of this in books and movies. I confess that I have a soft spot for fiction that moves across multiple lives or time travel or other time related discontinuities. One of my favorite all time movies was “Groundhog Day” Groundhog Day (film) – Wikipedia, where Bill Murray is caught in a time loop of comedic yet thoughtful events. One of my favorite books is Life after Life by Kate Atkinson Amazon.com: Life After Life: A Novel: 9780316176491: Atkinson, Kate: Books, about a young woman who is trapped not by a repeating day, but rather a repeating life. Matt Haig wrote a fascinating novel, The Midnight Library, telling the story of a person’s life as it is, along with another book chosen off the shelves for a different life one could have lived, a library life of choices. Amazon.com : the midnight library amazon
I approached this story with a mixture of anticipation and some sense that the author needed to prove her approach. And she did.
Tara Selter is a middle-aged book reseller who lives in a fictional town in northern France called Clairon-sous-Bois with her husband Thomas. They travel within France and to other European countries to pursue the book trade. Living in a small cottage house, their life is intellectually stimulating but predictable as together they slowly build their small business. On a routine buying trip to Bordeaux and then returning through Paris, Tara travels alone and returns to her house late one evening (on November 18th) with books in hand and a nasty little accidental burn on her arm. When she awakens the next morning, she is no longer home but somehow back in her hotel in Paris, the burn remains along with a clear memory of the previous day’s events, which are yet to occur. The story is planned to be told in seven volumes, four of which have been completed and three of which have been translated into English (at the end of 2025).
There is daily repetition of course, initially in the descriptions of a routine day back at her home. She attempts to convince Thomas, and eventually her own family, that she is trapped in a daily time loop, with some acknowledgement, yet in a sense it is futile because the very next day she must re-initiate this discussion. Growing weary of these futile attempts, she retreats to her room and her own thoughts and self-explorations, avoiding interactions. There is an interesting angle to the backstory: others who she encounters repeat the same actions at the same time, day after day. However, some objects (though not all) appear and then disappear upon the next morning, especially purchases or acquired items that she attempts to possess and retain. Phones cease to work on occasion, and laptop data tends to disappear. It is all slightly unpredictable and adds to the narrative. Tara tries to probe for an escape from the cycle, without luck, and the days accumulate.
In Volume Two, slowly she begins to extract herself from her home life, with travel. She discovers the option to stay for several (or many) days in the same hotel room or an unoccupied home that she finds along the way. Tara then chases the seasons (the weather) north into winter, and then after several months, back southward and into spring. The description of her travels on foot and by train and ferry across a score of small towns and cities is fascinating to follow. A seasonal travelog unfolds, deep through winter, into spring, and then what passes for her version of a late summerlike November – in southern England. As best I could follow, like this: Clairon to Paris Paris to Dunkirk Dunkirk to Bremen Germany Bremen to Brussels (her parents’ home) Brussels to Cologne Cologne again to Bremen Bremen to Hamberg Hamberg to Odense Denmark Odense to Copenhagen Copenhagen to Malmo to Lund Sweden Lund to Stockholm Through Finland, then back through Sweden to Bergan Norway Bergen to London to Cornwall to Plymouth England. Plymouth to Cologne to Dusseldorf…
At the very end of this second volume, she meets a fellow time traveler; how that happened and what do they do together.
Volume Three explores the existence and backstory of this new person, their time together and apart as they continue to try to hold on to their previous lives. As so many repeated days pass, it becomes more difficult to hold on to the past. The plotline eventually reveals the opportunity to meet up with additional time loop travelers.
A few excerpts which illustrate her writing style; it is easy to get lost in this prose:
Day #122. “Our love has always been microscopic. It is something in the cells, some molecules, some compounds outside our control, which collide in the air around us, sound waves that create unique harmonies when we speak, it happens at the atomic level or even smaller particles. There are no precipices or distances in our relationship. It is something else, a sort of cellular vertigo, a sort of electricity or magnetism, or maybe it’s a chemical reaction, I don’t know. It is something that occurs in the air between us, a feeling that is heightened when we are in each other’s company. Maybe we are a weather system – condensation and evaporation; we are together, we look at one another, we touch one another, we condense, we come together, we make love, we fall asleep, we wake and revert to our strange bond, a quiet weather system with no natural disasters…. Perhaps it was a case of neural reprogramming, a calibration of the mental instruments, the formation of new synapses between the brain cells, the creation of receptors, the production of neurotransmitters, maybe a rearrangement of my sense of time…”
Day #446. “Now I cannot get enough of winter. It is not enough that it resembles winter as I know it. I cannot content myself with snow that does not last, a light sprinkling. I am searching for the heart of winter, concentrated winter. I travel through mountains, I move upward, northward and along narrow roads where the snow has already settled as if it means to stay. I gaze at the landscape and write names in my notebook. Place after place. Name after name. I make notes of streets and restaurants. I write the addresses of empty houses and recipes for winter dishes in my book…”
Day #451. ” these are quiet winter days. I wake to silence. I have winter now, I am in Finland, and I have gone into hibernation. I have traveled north, and I think Siberian cold, although I don’t know why the cold here should be Siberian, it is Finnish, and I find dictionaries and try to learn new winter languages in my house, where no one lives and it is cold, and I slide down under blankets and stay still. Peitot ja viltit. Duvets and blankets. Talvi ja lumi. winter and snow.”
And. “In many ways, the repetition of the eighteenth of November comes as a relief. A day that made no assertions of progress and promotion. At least the eighteenth of November is honest… It wipes the slate clean.”
What I liked: Solvej Balle’s narration is repetitive in the spirit of the theme of this book. Throughout there are long descriptive thoughts, observations on human relationships, and nature, and the seasons that she longs to experience once again. Along with a sense of continuous learning as she researches cultures and history along the way. I found myself immersed in the culture of the countries that she traveled through. Following along as her outlook swings back and forth between desire to break through the cycle, mixed with acceptance of each day and her ability to stay busy and enjoy each moment.
This book is best enjoyed while sitting quietly in the sun, immersed in the narrative and as an escape from the daily vicissitudes of life. More volumes to come, I highly recommend!