Book 8: 3 April 2009
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.
Per Petterson was born in 1952 and worked as a librarian and bookseller before he published his first work, a volume of short stories, in 1987. Since then he has written three novels which have established his reputation as one of Norway’s best fiction writers. To Siberia and In the Wake are also available in English translation. Similarly highly acclaimed on its publication in the UK, Out Stealing Horses won the Independent Foreign Fiction Award and was described as “a minor masterpiece” by the Guardian and “a true gem” (Independent). It has been praised for the insight it offers into “the Norwegian countryside and psyche” and its ability to “capture the essence of a man’s vast existence”.
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