Fiction

Magnet

Lars Saabye Christensen

Winner of the Brage Prize 2015. For nearly three years, every single day, Lars Saabye Christensen has been writing his new novel. It will be standing as a major work in his authorship. Beatles was his great youth work, The Half-Brother the middle-aged man's masterpiece. Magnet is the aging author's masterpiece. In this work, he has invested everything he has, and at the same time – and it is the most impressive – it seems that he is doing something completely new.Magnet is a love story. It is about a mismatched couple who try to pull in the same direction with all their might. Jokum is a photographer who will take pictures of the ordinary, he will see the beauty and melancholy in the world. Synne is an art historian with Edward Hopper as her specialty. She is drawn towards fame, towards the spectacular. He feels more at home in cheap stores and second hand shops than in galleries and museums. Through his pictures he will show how time is present in everything we have. He manages this. Until he takes a picture of their dead child.The novel was shortlisted for the Booksellers Book Award and the radio channel P2-listeners Novel Award.. 'There is something very unusual about being one of our most popular authors and being highly ranked in international literature at the same time. That is the status of Lars Saabye Christensen and his writing.' TØNSBERGS BLAD 'I rarely read a long novel which is so full of mature wisdom and beautiful language and which at the same time manages to surprise the reader with unexpected turns.' BERGENS TIDENDE 'For this is a bounding, scenically based story full of tragic life events and comic slapstick figures, complications, digressions and strange happenings, jokes, aphorisms, anecdotes, metaphors, paradoxes, allusions, quotations, blues songs, diary notes and sketches; cunningly put together; linked to distinct leitmotifs and with a formidable range of voice, scene and comment; carried forward by an ambiguity about love, art and culture, birth and death; focussed on arousing feelings and reflection more than pompous admiration.' STAVANGER AFTENBLAD 'Magnet is securely on a level with Beatles and The Half-brother.' VG 'In Magnet Lars Saabye Christensen delivers a best-seller; a tender, sore and seriously funny love story.' HAMAR ARBEIDERBLAD 'A master wordsmith is at work here.' P2 'Magnet is Saabye in absolute top form. A 780 page brick of a book, with all the typical and therefore slightly parodic Saabye elements intact, but fortunately so elegantly assembled that it not only tolerates the high number of pages and the feeling of repetition, but sometimes flourishes on them.' DAGSAVISEN ' ... a splendid read with bitter-sweet and recognisable pictures of the times and a genuinely exciting love-story of a very varied pair. The dialogue is tightly-written, impressive and quotable.' DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV 'Well prepared, well composed, well written, well presented. Enjoy!' VG

The Man who Broke the Sound Barrier

Arne Svingen

Birger Brunkeberg has an easy-going life. He has an enormous collection of CD's and a good friend in prison. But one day the doorbell rings and reality hits his life with a hard fist. Mannen som gikk gjennom lydmuren is the story of this happy music-lover and the life he didn't know he was missing. A feel-good rock-and-roll novel! '(…) a novel whose style and tempo resemble a rock tune, and which in its own terminology could have been written by Dr. Feelgood.'STAVANGER AFTENBLAD 'Arne Svingen’s latest book could be described as a real feel-good novel. If you mix Nick Hornby and Fredrik Backmann you will get a good idea of how it sounds.'DEMOKRATEN 'Svingen has repeatedly shown that he is an ingenious storyteller, and when he tosses in a suitable dose of feel-good factor as here, it becomes quite entertaining.'MOSS AVIS 'The novel therefore has something in common with Nick Hornby’s writings, not least ’High Fidelity’ and ’About a Boy.’ Birger is a charming nerd'ADRESSEAVISEN 'Readers of Arne Svingen’s books for children and young people will recognise the playful language and the irrepressible gallows humour.'AFTENPOSTEN

Berlin Marathon

Geir Olav Jørgensen

Erik has moved to Berlin with his wife and children to study art history.One day he makes it home early from his studies and see his wife in the back yard, conversing with the lawyer Rammstein - a known womanizer.The conversation is obviously flirtatious, and Erik is jealous.This is the start of an inner Marathon. A journey through the German night that he is anything but prepared for. Full German translation avaliable. "A riveting read"STAVANGER AFTENBLAD"Simply a good novel. A fine novel."NRK"He succeeds in writing out the irrational anxiety and worry about a pending catastrophe (…) This tensity stays with you throughout the entire novel. Jørgensen manages to plant the anxiety in the reader, almost physically."DAG OG TID

Mule Boy

Øyvind Torseter

The king has sent six of his seven sons out into the world to find suitable princesses. They do not return, and Mule Boy insists on finding out what happened to them. He discovers that the troll has turned them and their brides into stone. He enters the mountain to find the troll and free the princess that the troll has captured. This is a funny twist on an old folk tale. There is a lot of humour and funny lines in the book. It is impressive and exciting to enter the mountain together with Mule Boy, and the princess is both tough and charismatic. We also know Mule Boy from previous books. The illustrations are beautiful, funny and fanciful both in terms of line and use of colour.Mule Boy was nominated to The Nordic Councils Childrens Book Prize in 2016. ‘… a beautiful little hero story about impossible choices and fearlessness, about fighting for what you believe in and finding happiness. This is fun reading for adults and children, and it is perfect for young people who will go on to compare narrative styles and values in contemporary texts with those in myths and folklore when they are at upper secondary school. Mulegutten should feature in a course or three.’ DEMOKRATEN ‘Øyvind Torseter lets his imagination run riot through a classic story. It’s particularly funny if you’ve heard the story before. Curiosity, adventurousness and courage characterise the young prince who rides out to save his brothers. Curiosity is a word that can also be used when talking about Øyvind Torseter himself – the result is a fantastic picture book that both children and adults will love.’ NRK 'Torseter is an entertaining story-teller, in both words and pictures.' DAGBLADET Danish Review Cuttings: The Mule Boy by Øyvind Torseter ’Mulegutten is a formidable work (…) This book fully deserved the Norwegian Critics Prize for 2015, and stands out as the most original illustrated book in many years. If it were possible, this book should be given 7 full stars!’ BERLINGSKE ‘This is a supreme presentation of a folk tale. (…) Elements from the present day are brought in, but the traditional folk-tale struggle between good and evil is maintained. (…) Øyvind Torseter does this well. “And then the Princess and the Mule Boy lived happily ever after. ‘ BOGBOTTEN ’The picture pages are outstanding (…) Mulegutten is a modern hero in a classic epic. So he stands apart from the metaphor, leaving it to the reader’s imagination. This is beautifully done. FINE SPIND 'Mulegutten which at the same time celebrates, unites and renews the genres of the classic folk tale and the cartoon series (…) Mulegutten is a book for all ages, which offers much on many different levels.’ KRISTELIGT DAGBLAD ‘Torseter’s pictures have a quite special and modern quality. (…) A beautiful and exciting book, which is not afraid to be different.’ MICHAEL LINDAL ANDERSEN

Cheerful Death Poems

Jan Jakob Tønseth

Jan Jakob Tønseth has written a collection of cheerful death poems. After it was confirmed that he had breast cancer, his thoughts naturally turned to illness, time and death. It is with great authority and consciousness of form that he moves in a literary landscape where he quotes and engages in dialogues with other poets who have written about death: Wergeland, Baudelaire, Ekelöf and Nerval. There is a selection of sonnets from his stay in hospital and the convalescence period. He locates his scar in a historic context, writing about flowers and his sister, Kari. There are echoes of the Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo (1500s) and of Baudelaire and Nerval. There are laments and biblical poems, and not least beautiful poems about Fagervann in Maridalen, where the sick go to find courage and strength. “Get up, young man/ and go to Fagervann.” This is a beautiful, gripping collection that makes the reader smile, chuckle and reflect on life and death. It is illustrated with old prints and drawings.

GONE

Terje Thorsen

Neiden 1970

Ingeborg Arvola

In Neiden 1970, Ingeborg Arvola writes about childhood with her father in the Kven village of Neiden in the far north of Norway, in East Finnmark on the Norwegian-Finnish border. Father eats apples clad only in his underpants and washes the cups and the socks in the same water. The fishing trips last all night and the drinking binges even longer. Their life together is full of joy, a sense of belonging, alcoholic withdrawal shakes and conscientious hard work. Childhood and adult life reflect each other in this powerful and tender novel. 'This is a beautiful book, written with great love, candour and warmth.'NORDLYS

Everything Will Be Hidden in One Hundred Years

Per Arne Totland

In 1924, the Norwegian government was forced to enter into a secret agreement giving the Soviet Union control of Svalbard in 2020. But this document soon went missing under unclear circumstances, and the agreement was forgotten. It resurfaces more than ninety years later. In a time when Europe is standing against an agressive Russia that wants to be a superpower in the far north of the world. The Russian president implements a comprehensive plan to undermine Norwegian sovereignty in Svalbard. The battle for the Arctic gains a new dimension, and drama unfolds in Longyearbyen. Om hundre år er allting gjemt is an international thriller that reflects the political conflict that already existed when the Svalbard Treaty was entered into in 1920 and that may flare up again as the eyes of the world look to the Arctic. ‘Om hundre år er allting gjemt is frighteningly close to our reality.’FORSVARETS FORUM‘The battle for the Arctic is given a new dimension in this interesting first novel.’VÅRT LAND

Save the Children

Tiril Broch

Tanja has moved to Hakadal outside of Oslo with her husband and two children. Here she tries to build a home, make packed lunches, keep the driveway clear of snow, teach her children the difference between right and wrong – and put the past behind her. This proves more difficult than she initially imagined.Save the Children is a warm, powerful novel about sorrow, fear and everday Sisyphean labour.‘It is well done to write such a rich novel about such hard and big questions in life, in so few words.’ STAVANGER AFTENBLAD

NOVELS

Bård Torgersen