Review: Dorthe Nors's Range follows an astrophysicist unsettled by rural life

A new review examines Range, the fifth full-length novel by Danish author Dorthe Nors, which follows Gunn Haven, an eminent professor of astrophysics at an urban university who relocates to rural Denmark.

According to the review, Gunn tells a local newspaper that her move "is to do with the sky," though the narrative suggests there is more to her decision than she initially lets on. Soon after arriving in the countryside, she becomes drawn into local affairs, including an encounter involving a nearby farmhouse and a local woman named Krista, who works at a potato flour factory.

A scientist distracted from her work

The review notes that Gunn is meant to be focused on a general introduction to astrophysics, described in the novel as "the Work," but instead finds herself preoccupied with her new rural surroundings and the people she encounters there, including Krista and Jenny, the teenage daughter of Gunn's hairdresser, whom she helps with a school project on black holes.

The novel is presented as an exploration of the tension between Gunn's professional identity as a researcher of "light from the oldest galaxies" and the unfamiliar, grounded realities of her new rural life. Nors, an established figure in contemporary Danish fiction, continues to explore themes of displacement and identity in her latest work.

The review offers a critical assessment of how the novel balances its scientific and rural threads.