Product Description

In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events - the accidental death of a child, his best friend's feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father's decision to leave the family for another woman - will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon's sudden breakdown. The tragedy which lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys' families gradually to fall apart. As a 67-year-old man, and following the death of his wife, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories of that year flooding back, and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10197 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

The Saturday Herald Books of the Year. Chosen by Catherine Lockerbie.
`...a deeply moving wintertime meditation.'

The Saturday Herald Books of the Year. Chosen by Ruaridh Nicoll.
`It is a small-scale, yet perfect study of humanity. I wish I'd
written it.'

Good Book Guide
Touching story

Customer Reviews

Enchanting
What a moving wonderful story. I read the book first and found myself reading more and more slowly just to savour the wonderful craftsmanship of the writing. I finished it reluctantly (its one of those books that you just don't want to end) and gave it to my husband who also loved it from start to finish. Not a big or complicated read, it was a joy from the moment I opened the front cover. It is one that I will tuck away for a few years and then read again when I need a treat.

Hypnotic, atmospheric

This is such a lovely book - I haven't read anything quite so evocative and atmospheric for a long time. Simple but majestic prose, I found myself narrating incidents in my own life with the same stark yet intimate tone. (Perhaps that's a strange quirk of mine, but I only do that when I feel completely involved and at one with a book and a writer.)

Set in Norway, the book is about Trond, a man who has set up home in the middle of nowhere almost as a retreat from life; he is nearing old age. So proceeds a description of his current state of mind intertwined with memories of a youthful summer spent with his Dad in a very similar area. And in Trond, Petterson creates a character whose honesty you immediately like, but only really understand at the very end of the book, keeping you engaged throughout. And even then you are left with questions, though perhaps that is the key. Trond is still finding out new things about himself, still surprising himself, even though he tells himself that he has withdrawn. The story burns slowly, but like watching fire grow, it draws you closer. This is a meditation on the things which make us, and the moments which you somehow remember, many of which you don't understand because they happen when we are too young. It's beautifully written, elegtant, and very moving. I loved it.

a lonely old man with no redeeming qualities
I'm not sure I agree at all that this is a story about nostalgia. This story is about an old man disconnected from his family, without real friends, who recalls the events of a summer when he was 15 years old a couple of years after the end of WW2 and the Nazi occupation of Norway.

For me the book is about how the boy's very weak relationship with his father flowered briefly that summer, but was suddenly cut off by what appears to be the utter selfishness of the parent.

In looking back on the events of that summer, the old man just recalls the facts. The author I think is leaving it to the reader to decide whether the lack of a lasting relationship of any depth with his father has caused the old man to have little real connection with his own two wives (though that isn't specifically addressed in the book), or with his own children. He doesn't even seem to care much that his daughter tracked him down in the backwoods of Norway and paid him a visit.

The old man isn't really making any effort to cultivate genuine relationships with his neighbour (though they do have a tragic event that summer very much in common)or with the local inhabitants beyond mundane necessity.

In some ways this is a rather sad book, revealing the rather stunted emotional responses of this old man. The final line of the novel really is the whole point - we do decide when things hurt - and this man seems to have turned off his emotions to make sure things affect him as little as possible.