Description

A spellbinding, darkly poetic literary novel that plunges us into the inner life of America’s first female serial killer

‘This fascinating, off-kilter novel about a female serial killer is an unexpectedly thrilling read’ Karl Ove Knausgaard

Seventeen-year-old Brynhild is in a fever – she can’t quiet the screaming world inside her. When an intense affair ends brutally, she flees Norway for America at the end of the nineteenth century in search of a new life. Changing her name first to Bella, later to Belle, she is driven from any potential refuge by an unbearable tension that won’t let her keep still. As Belle seeks release in a series of men, her yearning for an all-consuming love erupts into violence.

In this breathtaking novel, Victoria Kielland imagines her way into the tumultuous inner life of the Norwegian woman who became Belle Gunness – America’s first known female serial killer. Written in prose of wild, visceral beauty, My Men is a radically empathetic and disquieting portrait of a woman capable of ecstatic love and gruesome cruelty.

Publisher Review

'This fascinating, off-kilter novel about a female serial killer is an unexpectedly thrilling read' - Karl Ove Knausgard 'One of the best young authors we have... Kielland makes Brynhild tragic rather than cold-blooded' - Morgenbladet 'Gripping, unique, and amazingly well-written' - Vart Land 'Unusual and extraordinary' - Klassekampen 'What this rich and poignant novel does is try to get as deep as possible to the core of a person who struggles with what she is doing to the world and to herself. My Men is a literary achievement of the highest order' - De Standaard, 5 stars