A powerful and heart-rending novel based on Per Petterson's personal tragedy of losing many of his family in the sinking of the Estonia.
By the winner of both the IMPAC Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
Early one morning Arvid finds himself standing outside the bookshop where he used to work, drunk, dirty, with two fractured ribs, and no idea how he came to be there. He does not even recognise his face in the mirror. It is as if he has dropped out of the flow of life.
Slowly, uncontrollably, the memories return to him, and Arvid struggles under the weight of the tragedy which has blighted his life - the death of his parents and younger siblings in an accident six years previously.
At times almost unbearably moving, In the Wake is nonetheless suffused with unexpected blessings- humour, wisdom, human compassion, and a sense of the perpetual beauty of the natural world.
By the winner of both the IMPAC Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
A powerful and heart-rending novel based on Per Petterson's personal tragedy of losing many of his family in the sinking of the Estonia.
By the winner of both the IMPAC Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
Early one morning Arvid finds himself standing outside the bookshop where he used to work, drunk, dirty, with two fractured ribs, and no idea how he came to be there. He does not even recognise his face in the mirror. It is as if he has dropped out of the flow of life.
Slowly, uncontrollably, the memories return to him, and Arvid struggles under the weight of the tragedy which has blighted his life - the death of his parents and younger siblings in an accident six years previously.
At times almost unbearably moving, In the Wake is nonetheless suffused with unexpected blessings- humour, wisdom, human compassion, and a sense of the perpetual beauty of the natural world.
By the winner of both the IMPAC Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
A powerful and heart-rending novel based on Per Petterson's personal tragedy of losing many of his family in the sinking of the Estonia.
Per Petterson was born in Oslo in 1952 and worked for several years as an unskilled labourer, a bookseller, a writer and a translator until he made his literary debut in 1987 with the short story collection Ashes in my Mouth, Sand in my Shoes, which was widely acclaimed by critics. He made his literary breakthrough in 2003 with the novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been translated into 40 languages so far and won many prizes, including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
Outstanding... Almost every paragraph of his poet's prose is
informed by an awareness of the precariousness of life
*Times Literary Supplement*
A masterpiece... Powerful...compelling...stunning and deeply
moving... It's exactly the kind of novel we need right now
*Scotland on Sunday*
Exquisite
*Independent*
Delineates with powerful delicacy the struggle to bear the
unbearable
*Independent on Sunday*
Outstanding... Almost every paragraph of his poet's prose is
informed by an awareness of the precariousness of life * Times
Literary Supplement *
A masterpiece... Powerful...compelling...stunning and deeply
moving... It's exactly the kind of novel we need right now -- John
Burnside * Scotland on Sunday *
Exquisite * Independent *
Delineates with powerful delicacy the struggle to bear the
unbearable * Independent on Sunday *
In his impressive American debut, veteran Norwegian novelist Petterson chronicles Arvid Jansen's breakdown in the six years since his parents and brother were killed in a ferry accident (modeled after the 1994 sinking of the MS Estonia). Arvid wanders around Oslo and through the Norwegian countryside, sifting through memories of his stern, ultracompetent father and nursing an infatuation with his attractive neighbor, Mrs. Grinde. After Arvid's architect brother attempts suicide, Arvid tries to reconnect with him and pull them both out of the abyss. Despite the gloomy subject matter, Arvid is a witty, self-deprecating narrator who fought with his family while they were alive and misses them terribly now that they're gone. This novel won several literary prizes in Europe, where the Estonia disaster is well known. The events may not feel as immediate to American readers, but many will find Arvid's path of loss and redemption affecting nonetheless. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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