In 1975--designated the International Year of the Woman by the United Nations--Bjørg Vik published a collection of short stories titled Fortellinger om frihet (Stories about Freedom). Vik was forty years old and well into her second decade as a published author and self-proclaimed feminist, and she had already forged a prominent place for herself in Norwegian literary history. English literary scholar Janet Garton describes Vik as a "pioneer of liberation" and "the first to give literary expression to the ideas of the 'new wave' feminism." Similarly, Øystein Rottem characterizes Vik as "den nye kvinnelitteraturens førstedame" (the first lady of the new women's literature). Vik quickly gained this reputation by writing about women, probing nearly every aspect of a woman's development--childhood, adolescence, girlfriends, love, and marriage. Using everyday images, Vik describes the social realities that constrain her characters, exploring the internal and external pressures...