100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

Repetition

A Novel
Series: Verso Fiction
Brief Description
In a Norwegian November, when it is dark at waking and dark at sleeping, a novelist in her sixties sits next to a teenaged girl at the opera. Through their padded jackets, she feels a dreadfully familiar tension conducted from the parents seated on her far... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2299
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

prize-winning novel by one of the foremost writers of her generation, explores the horror and beauty of being sixteen-years-old.

prize-winning novel by one of the foremost writers of her generation, explores the horror and beauty of being sixteen-years-old.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

In a Norwegian November, when it is dark at waking and dark at sleeping, a novelist in her sixties sits next to a teenaged girl at the opera. Through their padded jackets, she feels a dreadfully familiar tension conducted from the parents seated on her far side.

She thinks back to her sixteenth year. The year she first got drunk and the year she first had sex with a boy. A year of being circled by an anxious, hawkish mother and, at a notable distance, her silent father. The year her family made an unspoken decision, and an unspeakable sacrifice.

Such reflections are at the heart of Repetition, immersing the reader in memories and decisions that ripple through time.

Series: Verso Fiction

View all
  • Bluebeard's Castle
    Judith is a successful novelist, but she's a little sensitive. She's from a good family, even if that family favours her more beautiful sister. She loves a drink (or three) but isn't sure if she loves the handsome doctor who is courting her. She yearns for a romance to yield to but remains a virgin. Judith receives visions from the...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Happy Hour
    With the verve and bite of Ottessa Moshfegh and the barbed charm of Nancy Mitford, Marlowe Granados’s stunning dΓ©but brilliantly captures a summer of striving in New York City. Refreshing and wry in equal measure, Happy Hour is an intoxicating novel of youth well spent. Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Girls Against God
    Welcome to 1990s Norway. White picket fences run in neat rows and Christian conservatism runs deep. But as the Artist considers her past, her practice, and her hatred, things start stirring themselves up around her. In a corner of Oslo, a coven of witches begins cooking up some curses. A time-travelling Edvard Munch arrives in town to join a death...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • How to Be a Revolutionary
    Fleeing her moribund marriage in Cape Town, Beth accepts a diplomatic posting to Shanghai. In this anonymous city, she hopes to lose herself in books, wine, and solitude, and to dodge whatever pangs of conscience she feels for her fealty to a South African regime that, by the 21st century, has betrayed its early promises. At night, she hears the...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • If Only
    A relatively young woman, aged thirty. She married in her early twenties, had two children. It is winter. January and minus 14Β°C, white, frosty mist around the parked car, around the spruces, the mailbox on its post, but higher up the sky is blue, clear, the sun has come back. She has written in her diary that she is waiting...
    Paperback
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Is Mother Dead
    "To mother is to murder, or close enough," thinks Johanna as she looks at the spelling of the two words in Norwegian. Recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence, she is preparing for a retrospective of her art. The subject of her work is motherhood, and some of her more controversial paintings have brought about a dramatic...
    Hardback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Is Mother Dead
    To mother is to murder, or close enough, thinks Johanna, as she looks at the spelling of the two words in Norwegian. She's recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence as she prepares for a retrospective of her art. The subject of her work is motherhood and some of her more controversial paintings have brought about a...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Last Sane Woman
    "I want to read about women who can't make things." Nicola is a few years out of a fine arts degree, listless and unenthusiastically employed in London. She begins to spend her hours at a university archive dedicated to women's art, because she "wants to read about women who can't make things." There she discovers one side of a correspondence...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Paradise Rot
    Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval follows Jo, who finds herself in a strange new country for university, experiencing a more peculiar time than most. In a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no boundaries, Jo discovers her odd home coming to life in unimaginable ways. Her sensitivity and senses become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the...
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Faraway the Southern Sky
    The young man arrived in Paris, a refugee from political repression, just as World War I was raging to a close. He came with just a few coins in his pocket, a painfully shy twentysomething who stammered when he spoke in public, though he had sailed the world as a lowly deckhand. He moved into a dingy hotel on a...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • I Fear My Pain Interests You
    Margot is the child of renowned musicians and the product of a particularly punky upbringing. Burnt out from the burden of expectation and the bad end of the worst relationship yet, she leaves New York and heads to the Pacific Northwest. She's seeking to escape both the eyes of the world and the echoing voice of that last bad man....
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Terminal Boredom
    On a planet where men are contained in ghettoised isolation, women enjoy the fruits of a queer matriarchal utopiaβ€”until a boy escapes and a young woman's perception of the world is violently interrupted. Two old friends enjoy cocktails on a holiday resort planet where all is not as it seems. A bickering couple emigrate to a world that has worked...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804298947

Publisher: Verso Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 March 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Verso Books

Edition: Paperback original

Contributors:

  • Translated by Charlotte Barslund

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 9.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 131g

Pages: 144

About the Author

Vigdis Hjorth is the author of over a dozen prize-winning and best-selling novels. Will and Testament sold 170,000 copies in Norway and has received several awards, including the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize, as well as being nominated for the National Book Award and Nordic Council Literature Prize. Long Live the Post Horn! won the Believer Book Award for fiction in 2020, and Is Mother Dead was listed for the International Booker Prize in 2023.

Also by Vigdis Hjorth

View all
  • If Only
    A relatively young woman, aged thirty. She married in her early twenties, had two children. It is winter. January and minus 14Β°C, white, frosty mist around the parked car, around the spruces, the mailbox on its post, but higher up the sky is blue, clear, the sun has come back. She has written in her diary that she is waiting...
    Paperback
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Is Mother Dead
    "To mother is to murder, or close enough," thinks Johanna as she looks at the spelling of the two words in Norwegian. Recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence, she is preparing for a retrospective of her art. The subject of her work is motherhood, and some of her more controversial paintings have brought about a dramatic...
    Hardback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Is Mother Dead
    To mother is to murder, or close enough, thinks Johanna, as she looks at the spelling of the two words in Norwegian. She's recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence as she prepares for a retrospective of her art. The subject of her work is motherhood and some of her more controversial paintings have brought about a...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Will and Testament
    Four siblings. Two summer houses. One terrible secret. To what degree should the horrors of the past be allowed to shake the present? Stalked by the darkest of shadows from her childhood, a woman struggles against the tide dragging her back to the family she fled years ago. This emotionally searing novel is at once a wrenching look at a...
    Paperback
    $5400
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Is Mother Dead
    "To mother is to murder, or close enough," thinks Johanna, as she looks at the spelling of the two words in Norwegian. She's recently widowed and back in Oslo after a long absence as she prepares for a retrospective of her art. The subject of her work is motherhood and some of her more controversial paintings have brought about a...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Scandinavian Christmas
    A Scandinavian Christmas invites you to immerse yourself in a Nordic NoΓ«l through a collection of the very best Scandinavian Christmas tales, ranging from the timeless works of Hans Christian Andersen to the contemporary stories of Karl Ove Knausgaard. Experience a truly Scandinavian Christmas filled with visions and prophecies seen in dark, mysterious woods. Encounter toys and trees that come...
    Hardback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Land
    Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, theΒ new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, TomΓ‘s and his reluctant son,Β Liam, are working for the great...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set
    The Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson is a landmark fantasy series that has captivated readers worldwide. Renowned for its innovative magic system, intricate world-building, and compelling characters, this trilogy is a must-have for any fantasy enthusiast. Immerse yourself in a world shrouded in ash, where a once-hopeful land is ruled by the tyrannical Dark Lord, known as the...
    Set
    $6499
    Elsewhere:
    $7500
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Bookplate
    New Release
    Light Wielder
    THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO METAL SLINGER, AKA THE BOOK WITH THE PLOT TWIST THAT BROKE THE INTERNET Sail the seas. Master the blade. Protect your heart. What would you do to have it all? READERS ARE GOING WILD FOR *METAL SLINGER* β€˜The BEST plot twist to ever grace my Kindle’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ β€˜The author is a mastermind. Romantasy is back!!!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL A BARACK OBAMA READING PICK A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. 'The most enjoyable hard SF I have read in years' GUARDIAN 'Weir's finest work to date... This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know...
    Paperback
    $2099
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Deal
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Deal now for the perfect fake-dating romance! She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy . . . Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β€” Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β€” Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β€” Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β€” Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β€” Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Bookshop Detectives 3: Murder and Mojitos
    Art Deco glamour, a Cuban crime queen and a grammar-obsessed killer collide in the #1 best-selling Bookshop Detectives’ high-stakes final instalment. The Bookshop Detectives are on the case! Booksellers Garth and Eloise Sherlock (and their cowardly dog, Stevie) have been roped into hosting Murder and Mojitos, a glamorous Art Deco festival event starring Cuba’s queen of crime fiction. Between flapper...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    20% off
    The Wrath of the Fallen
    SAMKIEL AND DIANNA WILL RETURN in the next sizzling, dark romantasy series from Amber V. Nicole. EPIC. SPICY. ADDICTIVE. Embrace the darkness . . . 'If you like romantasy, read this!' RAVEN KENNEDY 'A wicked ride from beginning to heart-shattering end. Leaving me literally screaming for more' HANNAH NICOLE MAERHER 'This is perfection. Amber Nicole's Dianna is the FMC of...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.