Given a choice of losing your sight or your hearing, which would you choose? For an artist like Peter Wihl, there is only one answer and he won't accept it's happening to him. Norwegian writer Lars Saabye Christianesen's The Model is a beautifully measured account of a self-obsessed, secretive man who is fighting against his creative sterility and his descending blindness. Concerned by his impending 50th birthday, his increasing blackouts and inability to paint, Peter fails to rescue his daughter, Kaia, from a traumatizing attack by a dog, and refuses to let his wife, Helene, know the reason for his erratic behaviour. Even when he confides in Ben, his gay art dealer, it barely contains his jealousy for the older man's promotion of a younger artist, who's also his lover. Despite seeking medical advice on his condition, he prefers to grasp at an alleged cure offered by a dubious old schoolfriend which requires a journey from Oslo to Estonia and the prospect of living with the dark secret he buys into.

On the surface, Christiensen's novel is a studied portrait of a troubled man. He captures the internal dilemmas of someone who has to contemplate creative and personal loss. Blindness is not something anyone would want to confront, let alone an artist who depends on his eyes for everything. The focus on the tight-knit group of people who support him, maybe even indulge his whims, Peter is also portrayed as selfish, remarkably blind to the impact of his actions on both his family and friends.

There is a sense that he is withdrawing into his own world, swayed by his own insecurities rather than take strength from the support and advice around him. The extent of Peter's arrogant mania becomes apparent once he makes his fateful pact with the sinister Thomas, losing him sympathy from both Helene and indeed, the reader too. His intended portrait of Kaia mirrors his trouble conscience as her brown eyes are now painted blue. Could such actions make his hidden secrets visible? Indeed, it's at this point that Christiensen's story takes a darker, more disturbing tone, daubing the written palette with a touch of the macabre and menace. Whilst this is not a literary version of Münch’s The Scream, it’s still a well-measured psychological drama enfolded in unsettling Scandinavian chill.