
'Out Stealing Horses' by Per Petterson is a contemplative novel that delves into the relationship between a father and son, set in Norway during and after WWII. The story follows Trond, a man in his 60s who retreats to a remote cabin to reflect on his past, particularly a transformative summer spent with his father in the backwoods country close to the Swedish border. Through flashbacks, the reader discovers the father's involvement in the resistance movement and the impact it had on their lives. The novel skillfully weaves together themes of boyhood friendship, tragedy, loneliness, and the complexities of familial relationships, all while offering vivid descriptions of the Norwegian landscape.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Triggers include loss, trauma associated with death (both past and present), and themes of emotional and psychological pain.
From The Publisher:
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.
Ratings (4)
Loved It (2) | |
Liked It (1) | |
It Was OK (1) |
Reader Stats (12):
Read It (4) | |
Want To Read (7) | |
Did Not Finish (1) |
About the Author:
Per Petterson was born in Oslo in 1952 and worked for several years as an unskilled labourer and a bookseller. He has received the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize and, on multiple occasions, the Brage Prize, the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the Booksellers' Best Book of the Year Award for his many celebrated novels, such as In the Wake, I Curse the River of Time and I Refuse. Petterson made his literary breakthrough in 2003 with Out Stealing Horses, which in English translation won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. It has been published in fifty languages and was an international bestseller.
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