Children's Books2021 · 232 pp
A Different View
Erlend Skjetne
I picture him now: There is light snow in the air, he is pulling a hand through the black hair. Just like that he sends me a glance, a quick smile, before lifting a small backpack out of the luggage compartment. If he is traveling that light, he must be one of us. A Different View is a story told from a refugee reception centre in the north of Norway. Eighteen Afghan boys are living there, and Anwar is one of them. He loves books and languages and is called The Professor by the other boys. One day Walid moves into his room. Walid is the absolute opposite of Anwar. A charming rebel and excellent football player. Gradually a friendship grows between Anwar and Walid. But everyday life at the centre is hard and the future uncertain. Who of them - if any - will get to stay in Norway?
“A Different View is linguistically interesting, touching and wise. (…) The book is about underage Afghan refugees and is solid and loaded with important perspectives. (…) Anwar’s diary notes and school assignments are full of funny linguistic twists and turns. (…) This compassionate and curious gaze at other people, the rural culture, Norwegian grammar and the incredibly cold climate is one of the book’s foremost qualities. The narrator leaves his mark on the reader.”
VG
“The thoughts are big, the associations are many. You easily get drawn into the book’s universe. It is exciting and intense.”
FRAMTIDA.NO
“In the Young Adult book, A Different View, which with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan could hardly have been more relevant, Erlend Skjetne gives the refugees a voice. (…) He has now written his first Young Adult novel, and it has become an ambitious and important book. Important because it looks at teenage life in Norway from a completely unknown side. Ambitious because Anwar is a philosophically minded young man, who will happily ponder over concepts such as home, community, friendship and belonging. The language is also ambitious.”
NRK
“Erlend Skjetne’s novel describes life in an asylum reception center in a down-to-earth and unsentimental way. The book directs an important socially critical look towards the recipient link, in other words, us, and highlights what Norway has to offer young people in need, for better or worse.”
BARNEBOKKRITIKK.NO
