While you might expect that this is a novel about 20-year-old Erasmus student Pierre in title-giving Trondheim/Norway who suffers a heart attack, is resusciated, and falls into a coma, these events are in fact only a catalyst to offer a portrait of a couple under duress: His mothers are struggling in a marriage full of resentment and cowardly avoidance, and the events around Pierre highlight their differing approaches when it comes to dealing with the world. Unfaithful Lil, a personal trainer hailing from Ireland, tries to remain on top of the situation by assuming a dominant role, while Spanish-born translator Alba seeks spiritual refuge in Catholicism and community with other affected family members - and you might rightfully ponder whether this multicultural queer couple, which now travels from their residence in France to Pierre's bedside in Norway, is somehow performing stereotypical heterosexual roles.

I do actually know what it means when a close family member is revived after a heart attack and then, just Pierre, is kept in a clinically induced coma on top of a natural coma - and the doctors desperately try to wake the person up, but fail repeatedly. The helplessness that comes with it, especially as you have to rely on strangers whose profession is an enigma to you, is well rendered by James. But Pierre as a person remains a chiffre, which - this is literature! - is not necessary from a narrative standpoint, and leads to the feeling of an empty center.

The mothers are also well-written, but I was struggling to keep my interest throughout: These are grown women with three children who fail at the most basic skills of communication and don't have the guts to either recalibrate or end their relationship. It's pathetic, and when juxtaposed with Pierre's destiny, it appears even more pathetic. And yes, the novel also ponders concepts belief, hope, superstition, and framing - but is it all that captivating? This reader was not all too immersed, especially when the whole biathlon / firearms metaphor started derailing.

An uneven effort by an interesting writer - let's see what he comes up with next.ireland23 s switterbug (Betsey)880 1,030

Alba and Lil married twenty-five years ago and raised three children. As the novel opens in media res, Cormac James places the reader directly into their marriage-on-the-skids. Lil is doing some heavy lifting with boxes; Alba looks on disinterestedly, a bit of contempt in the air. There are so many layers of resentment between them that it would necessarily be a lot to overhaul. Amidst this, they get a disastrous phone call about their eldest son, Pierre. He is studying in Trondheim, Norway (the wives live in Catalonia) and has collapsed in the street. He is in hospital in an induced coma. They set up family to take charge of the younger ones and travel to Pierre’s bedside. An interior story, the narrative has two primary plots: whether Pierre survives, and will the marriage survive.

The story is staid, mature, what I call a true grownup novel. The peaks and valleys of the tale are understated, requiring the reader to pay attention to subtle shifts in mood or attitude in order to gain maximum benefit of story. Pierre’s crisis does not unfold a “medica drama” but often functions as a theme or even a contrast to the marriage. Human crises, two simultaneously. Pierre’s is sudden and life-or-death, the marriage is long-suffering and losing oxygen day by day, over many years.

This is a solid debut by Cormac James, a serious and solemn narrative that examines how inattention can slowly suffocate a marriage, and how, on the turn of a dime, a robust life can be on the verge of wiping out. Death of a marriage is as weighty to a life as catastrophic illness. Both need care to survive. James created an authentic downer of a marriage, where the partners constantly pick at each other, with squalid results. Petty disagreements become little infections, and lead to larger wounds. All this happening as they wait, with hope, for their son to wake up.

The author turned cataclysms inward instead of creating a melodrama. Measured, tightly controlled, and gradually revealed. Be prepared for a phlegmatic pace, which I think was purposeful to counter the theme of a crisis at hand. Thank you to Bellevue Literary Press for sending me an ARC to review. I recommend this for literary readers.18 s Jill1,228 1,897

When a tragedy occurs – a college-age son is found lifeless a continent away – the whole concept of time suddenly shifts. There is suddenly no past, no future, no sense of home, and no way forward. There is only the present and each moment assumes an exaggerated significance.

Cormac James captures this phenomenon quite well in his searing dissection of two mothers, Alba and Lil, who race to their son Pierre’s bedside in Trondheim, Norway after his heart stops and he is raced to the hospital.

We know from page one that the mothers, who have been married for 25 years, do not have the smoothest relationship. There is an undercurrent of something amiss, and beneath the surface, anger resides. We even wonder why these two women decided to be together. But the magnitude of the tragedy demands that they bond together as they begin the long hospital vigil.

Except they can’t. Lil is outwardly the tougher of the two and the more adventurous, unable to express need from anyone for anything. Alba is far more emotive and relies on her faith to bring her comfort more than she relies on her wife. As a counterweight for Alba’s faith, Lil relies on her own instincts for unpalatable truths.

As the fate of their son, who lays in an induced coma, hangs in the balance, so does the fate of his mothers’ relationship. Both need healing and both rely on the comfort of strangers. In the meantime, the reader – much Pierre – is tethered to a place where the slightest word, innuendo, or variation is fraught with meaning. Is healing really possible? If so, what would it feel ?

I will, of course, not reveal what direction the story takes. I will say that the book demands an immersion of the reader along with the discomfort of teetering in moments of helpless waiting. I am grateful to Bellevue Literary Press for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.

16 s Mary Lins941 143

In France, Lil and Alba, mothers to Pierre, Noah, and Maria, are informed by a phone call that Pierre (age 20) has had a cardiac arrest in Trondheim, Norway, and is now in Intensive Care there in an induced coma.

“Trondheim”, by Cormac James, is a gripping domestic drama about a couple navigating a life-and-death emergency. any long-term couple, European or American, gay or straight, rich or poor, Lil and Alba immediately begin feeling the shock effects of the crisis and each react according to their very different personalities.

James beautifully (poetically), describes their thousand-miles dash to Pierre’s bedside, their crippling fatigue, the frustrating uncertainty, and the frightening possibilities.

I was completely engrossed in the story, which follows both Lil and Alba together and separately as their relationship is paradoxically both strained-to-the-max, and yet forged together in fire.

How will they emerge in the end?

Thanks to Bellevue Literary Press for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this beautifully written novel.
8 s4 comments Saskia1 review

with the short stories I've read by James, you can always feel the undercurrent of tension bubbling behind the action. There is as much said in the silences or the unspoken/unwritten text as in the words you read.

Trondheim is engaging, sometimes stressful, but always honest. It expresses the complicated and conflicting pleasure and pain of being a parent, a lover, and a partner. Plus, it puts these complicated roles and relationships under the microscope while everyone attempts to survive a terrible family trauma.

James' strength is largely in his characters, as you really feel by the end that you've spent time with real people. They are elaborate and complicated, experiencing a huge range of emotions, sometimes all at the same time. This doesn't mean they're all good people, but the best characters are often in the gray area, neither pure nor evil.

A hugely engaging read. I highly recommend it.6 s charlotte,3,417 1,031

Rep: sapphic mcs3-stars adult-lit audiobook ...more4 s Amanda McKeonAuthor 3 books19

I was lucky to get a copy of this beautiful book a little before it came out. This is a beautifully observed story about a couple who have lost each other and who find themselves plunged into a living nightmare, on the brink of losing their son. Strangers in a foreign land, Lil and Alba go to Norway where their son, Pierre, lies in hospital fighting for his life. While navigating the surreal vigil together but apart, it is the heart of their couple that is dissected as circumstances test both women and the pressure intensifies. Cormac James writes with a scalpel, meticulously laying out the minute ways we dance in a couple -- leaning in and then pulling away-- often in the course of an apparently mundane exchange. He captures the twist and turns that our minds take, often unbeknownst to ourselves, as we work through our 'stuff'-- the old, the new, the ongoing... This is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand themselves better but especially to understand better what happens when we merge with another for decades. We get to walk with the characters, weaving from one to the other as they do the best version of coping they can muster and it is impossible not to be drawn fully in with them. Highly recommend...favorites4 s Cathy35

For the life of me, I can’t understand the rave for this book. I couldn’t wait to finish it. I found the main characters unable and their bitter relationship a bore to read about.4 s Caitlin Anne6 Read

Such a lovely read!

What do you do when your best friend and life partner is a million miles away but simultaneously living in your home? That’s the premise, as I see it, of Cormac James’ most recent book, Trondheim, about surviving love and life through thick and thin and all thats in between.
Lil and Alba are thrown into a nightmare together but it quickly becomes clear that this couple is already in trouble. Their son’s health crisis that takes them to another country is the catalyst for the unleashing of the crisis in their relationship, which they have up until now managed to avoid. With each turn of the screw each woman has to examine who she is, both inside and outside her family and relationship. A keenly observed story about the anatomy of a couple. I really enjoyed this and will probably come back to it again and again.3 s Melissa199

I very much enjoy character-driven literary fiction, so that wasn’t the problem here. I also don’t mind unable characters, as long as they’re interesting, but good lord it was a slog to read the thoughts of these bitter, hateful women. I only kept reading because I wanted to know what happened to the kid…and then it turned out that wasn’t interesting either. Definitely cannot recommend this one.2 s Salty Swift917 11

When 20 year old Pierre drops to the ground at a Trondheim (Norway) bus stop, his heart stops for a few, life-altering minutes. Lucky for him, a bus driver resuscitates him and he's quickly rushed to a nearby hospital. His mothers who live in Southern France rush out to be by Pierre's side. His chances of coming out of an induced coma aren't great. The doctor who looks after him is both blunt as to his state and very caring for her patient and his family. The novel mostly takes places in the state-of-the-art hospital and surrounding area over a span of a week. The nerves, uncertainties, fear, anger, doubts, guilt are prevalent as is the deteriorating relationship of Pierre's moms. Immensely nerve-racking, intense and brimming with emotive prowess, Trondheim is a moving novel, one that will stay with you for a long time.2 s Robin Richmond1 review

Brave, fearless and beautiful.2 s Chris509 137

3,52 s Gabi Goyette2

I had a hard time following James’ writing structure throughout the book. In particular, the story before they reached Trondheim was oddly hard to follow. There was a lot of unnecessary detail about their renovations, including how they were moving about the house. I thought the characters were surprisingly surface level for how much it leans into the relationship between the mothers. This had relentlessly depressing statements about life and was a slog to read.1 Greg439 4

A common literary trope is marital bliss. What’s much more interesting, however, is to put a long-standing couple into a challenging situation and then watch how they respond. Albee did this to horrifying effect in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?” It turned out that George and Martha had some pretty upsetting problems underlying their “happy” marriage. James’ approach to this experiment is much more subtle, however. He gives us Alba, a conventional introvert, and Lil, an unsentimental extrovert. They have a long-term lesbian marriage with three seemingly well-adjusted children living in rural France. James exposes their troubled relationship in the most brutal fashion imaginable. Their oldest son, Pierre, suffers a cardiac arrest while away at school in Trondheim, Norway. Despite being revived by a passing bus driver, Pierre is now in a coma induced by a combination of brain trauma and medical intervention. Will he survive? Will he have permanent brain damage? Will the doctors be able to safely bring him out of the coma? No one knows. And that’s the challenge James presents to Alba and Lil.

James ratchets up his protagonists’ feelings of fear, dread, and hopelessness by putting them in the most claustrophobic setting imaginable—an ICU in Trondheim, Norway in mid-winter. Although James does not belabor the point, Trondheim is isolated only a few hundred miles from the Artic Circle and experiences almost total darkness at that time of year. Alba and Lil quickly display petty feelings of resentment characterized by Alba’s mystical religious fervor and rejection of Lil’s more pragmatic approach to life, including heavy drinking and romantic entanglements. Lil, on the other hand, doesn’t have the patience Alba seems to require.

James explores multiple themes in his narrative including the effects crises have on family dynamics, the roles that faith and miracles play in storytelling, and the limits of hope and forgiveness. Yet his overarching theme seems to be the disparity between surface appearances and underlying reality. Clearly, things aren’t always what they seem. What appears to be a successful marriage is really deeply troubled. From the hospital, the women notice an adjacent building site where the construction is hidden behind a print of a finished building. Christmas lights decorate the town where a young man is isolated from his surroundings. Lil encounters a runaway who she sees as needing her help, but the young woman is skeptical of her motives and ultimately rejects her help. The characters assemble on the roof of the hospital to observe Pierre’s doctor practice shooting at live targets—or maybe not. James also suggests that Pierre may have fled to Trondheim for school to escape a deeply dysfunctional family.

This is a meditative novel filled with close observations of characters in isolation and experiencing psychological pain. Notwithstanding its dark themes, the narrative is satisfying, often lyrical, and deeply moving.
1 Cristache Anna-Maria34 2

2.5audiobook1 KYLE MILLER553 1 follower

In a beautifully written family drama, a college student, who is studying in Norway, collapses on the street, is revived and put into a coma in intensive care where his mothers travel from France to be by his side. As they attend to their son, they also attend to their own failing marriage. 1 Jessica Langton1 review

A poignant evocation of a couple in crisis, carefully crafted, deeply poetic. The existential crisis gradually unfurling in this book is revealed to us through quiet, thoughtful observation. James captivates us with a magician's dexterity, winding us in more and more tightly. Illusions, disillusion and hopes are shifting veils, fleeting glimpses of some human truth. The parents awaken to a profound crisis in their couple, while their son lies comatose on a hospital bed. By the middle of the book I was gripped by this sad family saga, and moved by the loneliness of each character, each one, in their own way, trying to find meaning and connection.
Truly a good read.1 Patrick Thomas1 review

Incredible! Best book I've read this year. Can't recommend enough.1 Matt Willifer1 review

I loved Cormac James' previous book The Surfacing, and this new book - a riveting account of grief and relationships - is maybe even better. I would definitely recommend. 1 Alison Hardtmann1,361 2

When they get the phone call that their oldest son is in a coma in a hospital in the Norwegian city of Trondheim, Lil and Alba hurry there from their apartment in France, leaving their two other children, to be at their son's side. At the hospital, they are left waiting to see if he will regain consciousness and to find out what the damage to his brain is. Cormac James's novel follows the two women as they wait, stuck in a stressful situation, where the only thing they can do is wait. And, as they wait, as the medical staff work to pull him out of his coma, the fissures in their relationship are laid bare.

There's a lot of good stuff in this novel. James writes well and the character studies of the two women, especially Lil, are interesting. The Norwegian hospital and how the medical staff become involved in the lives of this small family is detailed and very different from how this same situation would be handled in the US. There are, however, two issues I have with this novel. The first is that I wonder why the author chose to make the characters two women, when their marriage is a stereo-typed caricature of a heterosexual relationship, with one character being uncommunicative, contemptuous of her wife, enjoying casual affairs and preferring to drink over showing any affection for the woman she married. The other woman is nurturing, has a body that shows the impact of three pregnancies, knits, needs affection, has religious beliefs and keeps her own anger hidden from everyone, including herself. My second issue is the lack of character development. Despite the great upheaval and shock of their son's medical emergency, neither woman changes at all during this book. I waited for a confrontation, a real conversation, a reconciliation, or a decision from one of them that being married to someone you hate is unhealthy and divorce is a reasonable solution, at the very least, and (spoiler alert) none of that happened. James does write well and I'm interested in seeing how he develops as a writer.my-library4 s Danai391 9

This was a moving exploration of how a family handles tragedy and the climb back afterwards. No one was particularly relatable (they’re all very French) but the pain and the recovery felt real. The writing was at times beautiful too.


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