Novelist Linn Strømsborg published her breakout novel Nikdy, nikdy, nikdy in Norway to process the loneliness of choosing not to have children, Novinky reported.
“Knihu Nikdy, nikdy, nikdy jste prý napsala pro vlastní útěchu,” the outlet said in an interview with the author. Strømsborg explained that wanting children appears as the most easily understood and common feeling in society.
“Osobně jsem děti nikdy nechtěla a bilo pro mě těžké slýchat, že mi je druzí přejí,” Strømsborg told Novinky. She added that she never woke up with a desire to become a mother.
She also said that she needed to hear certain things through writing the book, and a lot of other people clearly needed to hear them too.
Society often brands childfree women as selfish and unloving toward children. Strømsborg rejects this framing.
Strømsborg told Novinky. She argued that bringing a new life onto the planet is an entirely parental decision made without the child’s consent.
The author admitted she feared backlash from mothers upon publication. Instead, she received positive messages from both childfree women and mothers who connected with the story.
Strømsborg followed her debut with Sakra, sakra, sakra, translated into Czech by Vyšehrad this year, focusing on a married mother named Britt who feels overwhelmed by domestic labor.
“Britt k mne přišla sama,” Strømsborg told Novinky, describing how the character remained silent and unhappy during scenes with friends. The novel explores repressed female anger and burnout.
She said that readers, including men who recognized themselves in Britt’s husband Espen, reached out after reading the book. She also mentioned that they reportedly met through Britt’s husband Espen, which felt uncomfortable to them, and a Polish journalist told her that only after reading did he understand why he is divorced.
Strømsborg wanted to explore the stigma and loneliness she experienced as a woman in Oslo who never wanted children. She published the novel in 2019, and Vyšehrad released the Czech edition in 2025.
The character Britt emerged during Strømsborg’s writing process as an unhappy, furious wife dealing with the lonely burden of household labor. The book examines the societal taboo of female anger and burnout within marriage.
Strømsborg said that she never writes exclusively for women, noting that the human experience is largely shared across genders. Male readers subsequently contacted her to report recognizing domestic relationship struggles in the text.
When asked whether fiction allows readers to be honest about feelings they are ashamed to admit, she answered affirmatively, stating that at least it applies to her that way.
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