The summer after tenth grade stretches out before Mia and her
group of friends, long and free. Soon they’ll be going to high
school and will be split up, scattering in different directions. But
they have this summer together, here and now. During the vacation,
Mia and Are grow close in a new way, and it’s difficult to tell
the difference between friendship and what may be love. Autumn
arrives and Mia moves into dorm. She blossoms in her new environment
on the music programme, throwing herself into musicals
and concerts, dorm life, parties and new friends.
Then Are gets ill. Very ill.
Splintered is a vibrant novel about friendship, about how it’s
possible to be both happy and sad when something really wonderful
and something really awful happen at the same time.
Hilde Myklebust has created an intimate, rich story about intense
emotions.

The book was nominated Best children’s book in the Brage awards and Uprisen 2023.

Selected White Raven 2023

Translation rights sold to North Macedonia and Germany.

Read excerpt from English sample here

See the author’s presentation of Splintered here.

Reviews:

“In her depiction of this chaos of emotions, discouragement, grief, fear, and self-reproach, it is Hilde Myklebust who shows what she is capable of as an author. (…) Splintra is a powerful, painful, beautiful, and well-written story.”
— Vidar Parr, Synste Møre

“Hilde Myklebust has managed to portray adolescence with all the feelings and thoughts it entails. Grief and pain and joy and love wind themselves around each other and take turns occupying the most space. Through Mia, we get to experience what adolescence can feel like.”
— Irene Ålbrekk Kalvatn, Nynorskbok.no

“Myklebust writes closely and convincingly about starting upper secondary school on the other side of the fjord and at the same time losing your best friend. About discovering and embracing life in the music program and realizing that you love what you do — and at the same time having someone who loves you who is soon going to die. It is sad, a little Christmassy, and hopeful at the same time.”
— Periskop