The Hills Reply

by Vesaas, Tarjei; Rokkan, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9781939810380
• ISBN10: 1939810388
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-12-10
• Publisher: Archipelago

Summary

“There’s beauty to be found outdoors, but it’s not without its horrors. The conflicted role of humans in nature is a familiar theme, but few narratives hum with the surreal power of this one.”  — Kirkus Reviews

An intensely graceful novel recounting scenes of the Norwegian countryside from one of Norway's most beloved 20th-century writers

Tarjei Vesaas’s final work, The Hills Reply, is a flow of intensely lyrical autobiographical scenes. The vivid beauty of the wilds of Norway grounds the narrator’s interior flashes.

The first sketch finds a boy, his father, and their packhorse clearing a logging road buried in snow as their surroundings give way to a crisis. Profound insights into human behavior, solitude, and nonverbal communication stand up to the power and immensity of the natural world. The land speaks to (and at times almost swallows) the central character, as he is pushed to the edge of what a body and mind can endure.

The hypnotic pulse of Vesaas’s prose blurs the line between memory and hallucination, as it stares bravely into the unblinking eye of Nature. An unforgettable book, The Hills Reply is a visceral salute to the human spirit, to the ecstasy of wilderness, and to their tender overlapping.

Author Biography

Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970) novelist, poet, and playwright, is widely regarded as one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century. Vesaas spent the majority of his life in Vinje, living on the farmhouse that had belonged to his family for three centuries. Despite his apparent isolation, Vesaas proved to be a prolific writer, publishing twenty-five novels and several volumes of poetry, short stories, and plays in his lifetime. He won several awards, including the Gyldendal's endowment in 1943, The Nordic Council's Literature prize in 1963 for his novel, The Ice Palace, and the Venice Prize in 1953 for The Winds. His novel The Birds was published by Archipelago in 2016. He was considered for the Nobel Prize three times. About the translator: Elizabeth Rokkan was a professor of English at the University of Bergen, Norway from 1964 to 1990. She has received critical acclaim for her translations of the work of Tarjei Vesaas and Cora Sandel, and was awarded the St. Olav Medal for her efforts to make Norwegian literature available to English speakers.

Table of Contents

Contents
1. As it Stands in the Memory
2. In the Marshes and on the Earth
3. Spring in Winter
4. Daybreak with Shining Horses
5. The Drifter and the Mirrors
6. The Wasted Day Creeps Away on Its Belly
7. Washed Cheeks
8. Fire in the Depths
9. Words, Words
10. The Dream of Stone
11. The Heart Lies Naked beside the Highway in the Dark
12. The Tranquil River Glides Out of the Landscape
13. Beyond One’s Grasp
14. Just Walking Up to Fetch the Churn
15. The Melody
16. The Rivers beneath the Earth