Helene Flood: "There is a lot of sexual violence in Scandinavian countries despite equality policies"

Helene Flood (Oslo, 1982) studied psychology and specialized in violence, revictimization and post-traumatic guilt. This background is very useful when it comes to delving into crimes that occur in the closest environment, and how lies and deceptions of memory can have terrible consequences. In the novel The inheritance, which comes after The psychologist (2019) and The community (2021), the protagonist is a mother who begins to wonder if someone really killed her husband and if she herself could be in danger. Translated into Catalan by Laura Segarra, the book has been published by Columna.

In all her novels the criminal does not come from outside but is found in the most intimate circle.

— Yes, and this makes it even more terrible. I have a background in psychology and I specialised mainly in domestic violence. Therefore, I am very aware that those closest to us are those who can sometimes do us the most harm. And when it comes to writing crime novels, this works very well. Also, I am very interested in the relationships and bonds that are established within a family unit. In this case, between mothers and children. It allows you to go back in time, to what it was like when they were little, if my mother had a preference for one of them... And, on the other hand, in a family things are always kept silent and called lies.

It touches on a rather taboo subject: children who can become dangerous.

— Yes, it's scary when you realize that your child can do terrible things. Or that the people you know best, trust best, and love best can do monstrous things. At the same time, when you establish any kind of emotional relationship, you need to trust that person. And that's beautiful. The dark thing is that it makes you more vulnerable.

Are the lies that are called to those you love the most bigger?

— Yes, because lies will continue to exist between people who love each other. Sometimes we don't lie for selfish reasons but to protect someone or the relationship we have. We think that nothing is happening because it is a small lie, but it stays and grows.

And what are the consequences?

— This is what I explore in my books, the consequences of deception, but also of self-deception. In the case of The inheritanceLies have a huge impact on the present, but they also make Mom rethink whether everything was really as she believed.

But the mother is capable of questioning it.

— Yes, because there is a huge crisis and we need to look back. I am fascinated by people who do not look away, but are able to go to the bottom of it all, even if what they find can be very disappointing.

There is self-deception and the traps of memory. In every novel you have written, the protagonist is a woman. First a young woman, then a middle-aged woman with small children, and now a grandmother with grandchildren. Is the grandmother more fragile because she does not trust her memory?

— It's funny that you associate memory with fragility. Memory is the way we know ourselves, our history, our environment. If I don't trust my memory, I can start to wonder if I really know what happened to me, who I am or who the people around me are. In a way, you can start to distrust everything. And this makes us very vulnerable and fragile people.

You always write from a woman's point of view.

— Yes. There are a lot of women writing crime novels now. I don't know if the perspective is different or if we write differently as women, because of course I have never written like a man. Nor do I know if, as a woman, I focus on different things. Maybe it's more a question of representation. For me it's very natural to write about women. Women tend to talk about what happens in families, men about what happens in the boardroom or international conflicts.

The protagonist feels responsible for everything. Do we always tend to blame mothers?

— Yes, despite all the equality policies, we always end up holding mothers responsible. The protagonist is an elderly woman, but she grew up in Norway in the 1970s, where there was a big feminist movement. However, she came from a conservative family and married a man from an even more conservative family. She decided to stay at home. Her husband controlled the money and she had to ask his permission for everything. Most of her friends worked and had a career. Maybe all these decisions led her to a place where, deep down, she didn't want to be.

Norway has a long tradition of equality policies. However, there is still a lot of sexual violence.

— Yes, it is interesting. In Scandinavian countries there is a lot of sexual violence despite equality policies. We call it the Nordic paradox. We don't know why it happens. Maybe it is because it is reported more precisely because there is more awareness. Or maybe there is a cultural change, a reaction to feminism. Whatever the case, the numbers are very high and they are not decreasing, and the worrying thing is that there are also many complaints from young women. Studies are being made on how to combat it, it is on the public agenda.

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