The Manila Hall

Ruth Lillegraven

Original title: Manilahallen
Publisher: Tiden Norsk Forlag, 2014
Genre: Narrative poems
Pages: 231 pages

Birgit, born in 1946, was the joy child and the apple of her parents’ eye, the girl who loved animals and forests, books and music. At 33, she is admitted to Modum Baths, with a bodyweight of only 38 kg. How did her life turn out this way?

Every person carries a story. And that story contains love, pain, joy, grief— the darkest of dark and the lightest of light; all you have to do is ask.
This particular story surfaced through those long conversations which reveal our intimate histories between the author and Birgit. The Manila Hall is a biography, written as a poem by Lillegraven. A relatively conventional – and therefore, quite unconventional – book, the likes of which you have never read.

A tender, raw and well told biography in verse form … She turns a human life with much suffering into a biographical poem that moves and delights.”

Maya Troberg Djuve, Dagbladet

With The Manila Hall, Ruth Lillegraven shows what a great story teller she is. I catch myself wondering why some people write long novels when a story can be told as effectively and beautifully as this.”

Merete Røsvik Granlund, Bergens Tidende

You’ll have the skin of an elephant not to be touched by this penetrating poetic biography.”

Arne Hugo Stølan, VG

Ruth Lillegraven

Ruth Lillegraven debuted in 2005 with a collection of poetry entitled Big Bad Poems. Since then, she has published a novel, six poetry collections, as well as children books. Her work has been nominated for several prizes and she was awarded, among other distinctions, the Brage Prize and the Nynorsk Literature Prize. Her first psychological crime thriller, Everything is Mine (Alt er mitt), has enjoyed tremendous success and multiple international sales.