This is the story of Karin Blom, a 30-year-old Norwegian woman who quietly tells stories to her nephew Sander as they wait for his mother, Julie, to call. From fairy tales, Karin's stories begin to ripple outwards until gradually she tells us about her own seductions, about Julie's errant husband, about her decadent and irresistible mother Anni, and about Rikard Blom, the dead patriarch of the family and a man who believed "that life's big questions could be resolved as long as you knew a little about boxing".
It's fitting that Linn Ullmann's first novel is all about the legacy of ancestors and family, as she herself is blessed, or perhaps cursed, with famous parents - director Ingmar Bergman is her father, actress Liv Ullmann her mother. While that heritage will obviously cast long shadows, Ullmann more than deserves to be read for her own merits. Before You Sleep has a quirky originality in how it looks at the small dramas of personal relationships that sets it apart from much first fiction.
However, its imaginative promise is somewhat let down by its narrative structure. Ullmann hops and flits between hyperrealism and unsustained surrealism, between narrative viewpoints and literary styles, in a way that veers dangerously away from the complex and meaty towards the scattershot and confusing. Just as we begin to feel we are nearer an understanding of the eccentric and intriguing Blom family, we are waltzed into another rather bravado show of literary expertise. Ullmann is still a novelist to watch, but she will need firmer editing before she gets to really shine.