Conversations on the Beach
Updated: Oct 7
An older woman returns to a beach in South India more than forty years after a life-changing stay. Through intimate conversations and resurfacing memories, she gains insight into the experiences that have shaped her and kept her captive in unfortunate life patterns.
By Mette Werner
More than forty years after a life-changing stay in South India, Sara returns to the beach where her world was once turned upside down. Now an older woman, she hopes that revisiting the place—and the people she left behind—will help her understand what really happened there all those years ago.
On the beach Sara reunites with Karna, a schoolboy back then, now a retired professor who has also been sorely tried by life. In their conversations while strolling in the warm wavelets or sitting in the sunset gazing at the vast expanse of water, free from all expectations and requirements that come with more regular contact, they can gradually approach their own stories and the reader can experience what happens when we block our emotions: how our development stagnates or makes us chose roads that make us unhappy.
Set against the vivid landscapes, sounds and rhythms of India, Conversations on the Beach is a reflective and emotionally intimate novel about having one’s eyes opened. As Sara and Karna both come closer to their repressed feelings, they experience the releasing power in being listened to and accepted.
The novel is a standalone sequel to Ode to Light.
Title: Conversations on the Beach
Original Language Title: Samtaler på stranda
Author: Mette Werner
Genre: Literary Fiction / Psychological Fiction
Themes: Ancient wisdom, inner journey, meditation, development and growth, plus how to deal with the state of the world today.
Language: Norwegian (Original) / Complete English Translation Available
Publisher: Kolofon Forlag AS
ISBN: 978-82-300-3144-5
Publication Date: 2026
Copyright Year: 2026
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 194
Page Size: 165 × 230 mm
Edition: 1
Rights Available: Translation, print, digital and audio rights. Please contact Norwegian Indie Agency for information about available territories.
Author Biography
Mette Werner trained as a filmmaker in the United States and later worked as a screenwriter for Teamfilm AS. Since making her literary debut in the Norwegian journal Vinduet in the 1970s, she has written across several genres, in both prose and drama.
The short movie The Journey, based on her original screenplay, was named Best Norwegian Short Film and received the award for Best Fiction Film at the renowned Tampere Film Festival in Finland.
Werner has lived in several countries, including Switzerland, India, Spain, USA and Argentina. Her extensive international experience, work in film and lifelong interest in personal and spiritual development are reflected in her writing.
