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2012 Longlist

I curse the river of time

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

It is 1989 and all over Europe Communism is crumbling. Arvid Jansen is in the throes of a divorce. At the same time, his mother is diagnosed with cancer. Over a few intense autumn days, we follow Arvid as he struggles to find a new footing in his life, while everything around him is changing at staggering speed. As he attempts to negotiate the present, he remembers holidays on the beach with his brothers, his early working life devoted to Communist ideals, courtship, and his relationship with his tough, independent mother – a relationship full of distance and unspoken pain that is central to Arvid’s life.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Per
Petterson

Per Petterson was born in 1952 and was a librarian and bookseller before he published his first work, a volume of short stories, in 1987. Since then he has written three novels which have established his reputation as one of Norway’s best fiction writers. To Siberia and In the Wake are also published by Harvill in English translation.

Per Petterson was born in 1952 and was a librarian and bookseller before he published his first work, a volume of short stories, in 1987. Since then he has written three novels which have established his reputation as one of Norway’s best fiction writers. To Siberia and In the Wake are also published by Harvill in English translation.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Charlotte
Barslund

Charlotte Barslund is a translator of Scandinavian plays and novels. Her translation of Calling Out For You by Karin Fossum was nominated for the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger award, while her translation of I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction award.

Charlotte Barslund is a translator of Scandinavian plays and novels. Her translation of Calling Out For You by Karin Fossum was nominated for the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger award, while her translation of I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction award.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The author is a prize-winning Norwegian novelist and a trained librarian. This novel is a beautiful book about love, regret, family secrets and failed revolution; describing the ways that the present and the past are always intertwined and showing how the personal and political are one and the same. The novel displays wisdom that only profound loss can bring – A dark tragi-comedy, this is a story of a man reaching a crisis point in his life, portraying complicated personal relationships in beautiful, powerful prose – Arvid endures every type of early-middle-age malaise. His marriage is disintegrating, his mother is dying and his ideals are collapsing. What ensues is a work of blackest tragicomedy and the literary equivalent of Munch’s The Scream: As spare, cold and unforgiving as the Scandinavian winter that it is setting.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
Norway
Original Language
Norwegian
Author
Publisher
Harvill Secker
Translator
Charlotte Barslund

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