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Each year I take note of the New York Times selection of the top ten books of the year. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson was on that list. Second or third if I’m remembering right. I had intended to give it to my daughter for Christmas – she loves new and excellent fiction. But it arrived to late for gift giving so I decided to treat myself and stowed it away in the suitcase I was packing for a January vacation. Glad I did. The language is sparse, but poetic. The insights and revelations powerfully universal, human and humane. The plot itself is lean. At the turn of the new millennium Trond Sander finds himself alone at sixty-seven. He has purchased a dilapidated farmhouse in a small rural community, which he intends to spend the rest of his life refurbishing. It will give orientation and purpose to his days. And he needs that. Why? That is revealed slowly, in snatches of dreams and lingering memories that move back and forth in time. The use of first person narration allows us to feel the intensity of Trond’s montage of memories, to relive his fears, his sense of betrayal. In many ways Petterson reminds me of Cormac McCarthy, without being quite as dark. His novel has more poetic savoring of what is lovely, what is miracle even in the smallest of pleasures – a bench to sit on and observe the river, a meal of simple bread and cheese shared. Petterson does not tie off all the strings in this novel. He gives us – the readers - work to do throughout and lets us take the ending of this novel where we will. But Trond Sander stays with me. He is a lingering intensity, a moving character whose stories drew me into the complexity of a family story that includes betrayal, loss of innocence, and tragedy. But Trond Sander shows us something else as well. He shows us how one man survives. For as his father told him once long ago, “You decide for yourself when it will hurt.” Selected by the New York Times, but also winner of the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary award, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Norwegian Bookseller’s Prize – it comes highly recommended, and rightly so <back to list |
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