Love, or Something Like it

About love and what it does to us. For the persons we meet in this short story collection, the desire to be close to others is both a beautiful and a destructive force.

Magni can’t forget the older lover she had as a young student. Erik recognizes his ex-girlfriend down the street and wonder if he should say hello or hide. When Astrid’s cohabitant leaves for America to study, she finds comfort in a bear costume.

Sometimes people meet at the wrong time, other times two people discover that they interpret love in different ways. In Love, or something like it, Therese Tungen explores ancient themes such as reason and feelings, time and destiny. At the same time, the stories appear highly relevant in an era where the premise of courtesy and living together is changing.
How much of love is governed by our own choices, and how much is random or circumstance? A new strong short story collection by critically acclaimed Therese Tungen.

There is a finely tuned presence and a moving seriousness in Tungen’s short stories. They are close, but not clammy, and stylish without being slick. … Therese Tungen must have been influenced by Alice Munro.


This book explores people’s relationships with each other through densely but low-key short stories, where the author lets the reader recognize her/his own life.

Vårt Land

Therese Tungen has again delivered a very good short story collection that engages and touches.

Stavanger Aftenblad