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2013 Longlist

Child Wonder

Translated from the original Norwegian by Translated from the original Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

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 AUTHOR Roy
Jacobsen

Roy Jacobsen has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literary Award: for Seierherrene in 1991, and Frost in 2003, and in 2009 he was shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Award for his novel The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles. The Unseen was Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017.

Roy Jacobsen has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literary Award: for Seierherrene in 1991, and Frost in 2003, and in 2009 he was shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Award for his novel The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles. The Unseen was Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

A book about the wonders of being a child – and the dangerous experience of growing up. From Oslo. Quiet and lovely.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
27/09/2011
Author
Publisher
Graywolf Press
Translator
Roy Jacobsen
Translation
Translated from the original Norwegian by Translated from the original Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

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