Nothing Happened

The mousey, bookish and painfully self-conscious narrator Edle Henriksen discovers humiliation and hope in the course of this stirring novel about friendship and lesbian longing. Set at the University of Oslo in 1939, three female students, all ambitious yet different from one another, engage their minds and unspoken passions in an effort to understand themselves and the war-torn world around them. Bente is a self-made Noraheroic, self-assuredwho flees her stifling husband and infant to carve out her own identity; glowingly honest, Gro is the scientist bent on helping her eggheaded friend Edle to blossom. The three share coffee, secrets and studies, but as the title promises, essentially nothing happens. Beautifully translated, lyrically told, the story by the famous author explores the feminist struggle between motherhood and personhood. (May)