Out Stealing Horses

Just when 67-year old Trond decided to plunge into solitude to move on from the recent deaths of his wife and sister, his only sibling, and to cure the loneliness the tragedy had inflicted on him, and just when he had lost interest in talking to people that he moved to a rural cabin, he met his new neighbor, who lived down the river, that made him ride again the train of thoughts that transported him back to the memories of his past. The prose takes its time to describe in pristine narrative the beautiful yet melancholic landscapes in the narrator’s present home and his memories of wood chopping with his father, stealing horses with a friend, bicycle rides to the train station, etc. with the Norwegian-Swedish border’ landscapes in the backdrop. This beautiful prose brings the ending to an emotional jolt.

Out Stealing Horses by the Norwegian author, Per Petterson, won two prestigious international literary awards: IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction.

{June 25, 2009}