Book review: Wilful Disregard a Novel about Love

Lena Andersson (translated by Sarah Death)

ESTER NILSSON is a 31-year-old poet and essayist with eight slim but dense books to her name. Since her mid-20s, she has been sharing her life with Per, a man who satisfies her physical and mental needs while giving her all the space she needs to be herself. Her life is one of contentment, free of complication, and fixed to a precise sort of reality. Then one day she is asked to deliver a lecture on the work of an acclaimed video artist, Hugo Rusk — a talent that she has long admired.

On the day of the lecture, he actually appears, sitting in the front row and hungrily absorbing every word. His joy at her insight is overwhelming; after having spent so many weeks consuming details of his work and life, she finds herself falling for him. He seems interested in her as a person. Over the weeks that follow, they meet to talk for hours at a time, over increasingly intimate dinners or in his studio, and the relationship with Per simply cannot compete. The inevitable happens: talking stops and Ester and Hugo become lovers.