Echoes of the City (Innbundet)

Maj

Series: Byens spor 2

Author:

Lars Saabye Christensen

Norwegian title: Byens spor - Maj
Author:
Binding: Innbundet
Year: 2018
Pages: 544
Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Språk: Bokmål
Series: Byens spor
Serienummer: 2
ISBN/EAN: 9788202588755
Overview Byens spor - Maj

This is the second part of the Echoes of the City trilogy.
In this book Maj – and not least her struggle to bring up her children, Signe and Jesper – is in focus. Jesper and his best friend, Jostein the butcher's son, grow from children into young men in each their own way.


‘Sometimes the author's language resembles poetry, other times it flows with cascades bringing to mind great authors like Agnar Mykle... top-class literature.’
FÆDRELANDSVENNEN 6/6

‘It's a book filled with sorrow and wistfulness for a time torn between faith in the future and the community's need for social control. It's Lars Saabye Christensen on home turf. It's the author at his best.’
BOK365 6/6

‘In this magnificent novel Lars Saabye Christensen delivers quoteworthy and goldlike sentences, vigorous word play and surprising associations.’
VG 6/6

‘Among all this year’s fiction, Lars Saabye Christensen’s novel Echoes of the City is, for me, in a class of its own.’
DAGEN

The curator of the city’s cultural heritage
‘In an extension of this book’s affectionately realistic portrayal of Oslo, both preservation and renewal remain open to possibilities for the attentive curator of the city’s cultural heritage.’
KLASSEKAMPEN

'I just have to repeat how impressed I am with Lars Saabye Christensen. It's like he's just sitting there, almost improvising on his keyboard and suddenly he's composed yet another masterpiece, in a trilogy I predict will be as successful as The Half Brother.'
DAGBLADET

‘It is so elegant, it is so light and there is such a drive in his language, which leaves me, the reader, sitting there, smiling over his skilful phrasing… Now we have reached the end of the 1950s and the countdown to volume three of this fantastic section of Lars Saabye Christensen’s enormous body of work has already begun. Can somebody out there please tell one of the greatest authors in the history of Norway that we want a lot more books? I want to follow these people and this place all the way – no matter where it ends.

NETTAVISEN, 6/6

‘Saabye Christensen's writing is rich and elegant, and is always easy to read. Burlesque humour verging on farce is counterbalanced by the underlying melancholy. At the outset, one may feel that the book flows too smoothly, but the author gradually tightens his grip to the nth degree… is it really another year until the next book?’
ADRESSEAVISEN

Master storyteller 19/10/2018
‘Eminent is a big word. Even so, it comes to mind assessing the second volume of Lars Saabye Christensen’s memoir novel, Echoes of the City.’

‘It is hardly news that Lars Saabye Christensen is a master storyteller who is both sharp and affectionate. He showed that with The Half-Brother, now 17 years old, which rapidly acquired classic status. Already, after only two volumes, the new trilogy is well on its way into the same league.’
WEEKENDAVISEN

Saabye sucks the reader into 1950s Oslo, 19/10/208.
‘The reader breathlessly follows, into and under the skin of the novel’s protagonists; we hear what they hear, see what they see, while the Oslo of days gone by rises out of the mist with its zeitgeist of small shops and events, humility and crushed dreams.’ ‘We look forward to the third part of the Oslo trilogy. It’ll be hard to wait.’
INFORMATION

Bright Maj and dark Oslo, 06/10/2018
Echoes of the City is one of the most absorbing, intimate and warm stories I have read.’
KRISTELIGT DAGBLAD

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More books by Lars Saabye Christensen:

Reviews Byens spor - Maj

«Lars Saabye Christensen strør om seg med finslipte litterære gullkorn, spreke ordleker og overraskende assosiasjoner i denne praktfulle romanen.»

 
Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

«Forfatterens språk er noen ganger som poesi, andre ganger flommer det av ordrike kaskader som nærmer seg Mykle...litteraturens øverste klasse»

 
Emil Otto Syvertsen, Fædrelandsvennen

«Det er så elegant, det er så lett og det er et slikt driv i språket hans som gjør at jeg som leser blir sittende/liggende å smile av formuleringsevnen hans. (...) Nå har vi kommet fram til slutten av 50-tallet og nedtellinga har allerede begynt til bind tre i denne fantastiske delen av Lars Saabye Christensens enorme forfatterskap. Kan noen der ute være så snill å fortelle en av Norges-historiens største forfattere at vi vil ha mange flere bind? Jeg vil være med disse personene og dette miljøet hele veien - uansett hvordan det ender.»

 
Tor Hammerø, Nettavisen

«Det er en sår bok fylt med vemod over en tid som ble slitt mellom troen på en åpnere framtid og fellesskapets behov for sosial kontroll. Det er Lars Saabye Christensen på hjemmebane. Det er forfatteren på sitt beste.»

 
Leif Gjerstad, Bok365

«Og jeg må bare få gjenta hvor imponert jeg igjen blir over Lars Saabye Christensen. Det er som om han bare sitter der og nærmest klimprer på tastaturet, før han med ett har improvisert fram nok en formfullendt roman i en serie jeg spår en like stor suksess som Halvbroren

 
Cathrine Krøger, Dagbladet

«Saabye Christensen skriver innfallsrikt og elegant, og alltid lettlest. Burlesk humor på grensen til farse balanseres mot melankolien som ligger i bunn. I starten kan man føle at boka flyter i overkant lett, men forfatteren fester etter hvert grepet så til de grader... Er det virkelig et år til neste bok?»

 
Ole Jacob Hoel, Adresseavisen

«Av skjønnlitterære bøker dette året står Lars Saabye Christensens roman Byens spor for meg i en særklasse.»

Audun Mosevold, Dagen

Den litterære byantikvaren 06.10.2018

«I en forlengelse av denne bokas kjærlig-realistiske Oslo-skildring står både bevaring og fornying som åpne muligheter for hovedstadens omsorgsfulle litterære byantikvar.»

Janneken Øverland, Klassekampen

Mesterfortæller 19.10.2018

«Eminent er et stort ord. Alligevel ligger dete ligefor, når man skal vurdere andet bind af Lars Saabye Christensens erindringsroman Byens spor

«Det er ikke nyt, at Lars Saabye Christensen er en på samme tid skarp og kærlig mesterfortæller. Det viste han med den nu 17 år gamle Halvbroderen, som hurtigt fik klassikerstatus. Den ny trilogi er allerede efter bind to godt på vej ind i samme liga»

Birte Weiss, Weekendavisen

Saabye suger læseren ind i 50’ernes Oslo 19.10.2018

«Læseren følger åndeløst med ind under huden på romanpersonerne, man hører, hvad de hører, ser, hvad de ser, mens fortidens Oslo rejser sig af tågen med sin tidsånd af små butikker og begivenheder, beskedenhed og knuste drømme.»
«Vi ser frem til tredje del af Oslo-trilogien. Det bliver svært at vente.»

Marie Louise Kjølbye, Information

Lysende Maj og mørke Oslo 06.10.2018

«Byens spor er en af de mest dragende, intime og nære fortællinger, jeg har læst.»

Iben Tandgaard, Kristeligt Dagblad

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Author Lars Saabye Christensen

Lars Saabye Christensen (b. 1953) is one of Norway’s most beloved and prolific authors. Despite being best known for his long novels, Saabye is also a poet. His debut book was the poetry collection History of Gly (1976), for which he was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas prize. His first novel, The Amateur, was published in 1977 and Saabye Christensen often says all his novels could’ve had this title. Humans who struggle with inner insecurities and lack of a directory of their own lives, who are not professionally well-prepared in all of life’s situations, but instead make wrong choices and appear clumsy – these are the people he has an ever-recurring love for in his books.

His big breakthrough novel was Beatles (1984), which is one of the biggest selling literary titles in Norway ever and which new generations of youth keep falling in love with. In 2001 his epic major work The Half Brother was published, an extraordinarily generous and moving novel, which follows a family over a period of many years and through all stages of life. The Half Brother became an international success and won the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Between 2017 and 2021 the series Echoes of the City was published, which was met with exceptional criticism and reached a large readership. Saabye Christensen has written over 70 titles, won numerous prizes and awards, and has been translated into 36 languages.

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