Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11003 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• 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

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Trond is still finding out new things about himself, still surprising himself, even though he tells himself that he has withdrawn.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.

wonderful
Just a wonderful book from start to finish. The kind of book you just don't want to end. I stumbled across this by accident and am very glad I did. Simply a great novel.

Father and son
A contemplative novel about the relationship between father and son and how it changes as events happen.
A Norwegian, Trond retires to the country to try to find solitude in his old age now his wife has died, but meets someone from his youth that forces him to re-examine his teenage years when he and his father spent summers in the backwoods country close to the Swedish border where later WWII intruded.
Few words jar in this thoughtful translation, but there is drama and tension throughout - however muted. A recommended read.