Child Wonder
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Nine-year-old Finn and his mother find comfort in each other’s company as they struggle to get by in a working-class suburb of Oslo. But when a half sister Finn never knew joins the household, their familiar routines are upset. Finn takes the girl under his wing over an idyllic summer on an island in Oslofjord, but he can’t understand why everyone thinks his new sister is so different from other children. Nor can he fathom his mother’s painful secret, one that pushes them ever further apart. As summer comes to a close, Finn must attempt to grasp the incomprehensible adult world and his place within it. Told in Finn’s irrepressible voice, Child Wonder is a powerful and unsentimental portrait of childhood.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Don
Bartlett and Don Shaw
Don Bartlett is the translator behind some of the most read and talked about Norwegian books of recent years. From Jo Nesbø’s successful crime books to the titanic introspection of Karl Ove Knausgård and his seminal My Struggle series. Bartlett has worked with some of the biggest names in Norwegian literature and has helped make their books into international best-sellers. We caught up with him at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich’s Dragon Hall to chat with him about his career as a translator, the runaway success of Knausgård’s My Struggle, the recent rise in Norwegian literature and just how difficult it is to translate dialect into English.
Don Shaw is an author and a teacher of Danish. He is the author of the standard Danish–Thai/Thai–Danish dictionaries. He has also worked with Don Bartlett on translating Erland Loe.
Don Bartlett is the translator behind some of the most read and talked about Norwegian books of recent years. From Jo Nesbø’s successful crime books to the titanic introspection of Karl Ove Knausgård and his seminal My Struggle series. Bartlett has worked with some of the biggest names in Norwegian literature and has helped make their books into international best-sellers. We caught up with him at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich’s Dragon Hall to chat with him about his career as a translator, the runaway success of Knausgård’s My Struggle, the recent rise in Norwegian literature and just how difficult it is to translate dialect into English.
Don Shaw is an author and a teacher of Danish. He is the author of the standard Danish–Thai/Thai–Danish dictionaries. He has also worked with Don Bartlett on translating Erland Loe.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A book about the wonders of being a child – and the dangerous experience of growing up. From Oslo. Quiet and lovely.