Out Stealing Horses A Novel

by Petterson, Per; Born, Anne

• ISBN13: 9780312427085
• ISBN10: 0312427085
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-29
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and oneof the first days of July. Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that dayan incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. Set in the easternmost region of Norway,Out Stealing Horsesbegins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer. Per Petterson, author ofIn the Wake(published by Picador), has written five novels, which have established his reputation as one of Norway's best fiction writers.Out Stealing Horseshas won the Norwegian Bookseller's Prize, the Critics' Award for best novel, and theIndependentForeign Fiction Prize. Anne Born, poet, critic, and historian, has translated many works from the principal Scandinavian languages into English, including two previous novel by Per Petterson. Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award ANew York TimesNotable Book of the Year ALos Angeles TimesBook Prize Finalist Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that dayan incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. At age sixty-seven, Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated part of eastern Norway to liv the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer. "Haunting, minimalist prose and expert pacing give this quiet story from Norway native Petterson (In the Wake) an undeniably authoritative presence."Kirkus Reviews"In this quiet but compelling novel, Trond Sander, a widower nearing seventy, moves to a bare house in remote eastern Norway, seeking the life of quiet contemplation that he has always longed for. A chance encounter with a neighborthe brother, as it happens, of his childhood friend Joncauses him to ruminate on the summer of 1948, the last he spent with his adored father, who abandoned the family soon afterward. Trond's recollections center on a single afternoon, when he and Jon set out to take some horses from a nearby farm; what began as an exhilarating adventure ended abruptly and traumatically in an act of unexpected cruelty. Petterson's spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond's childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy's perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man."The New Yorker"Among the agreeable surprises of Per Petterson's novel is the misleading suggestion that the modesty of his narrator's voice foretells a tale of minor events, an account of the sort of photorealism that prevents anything from happening. In fact, the book contains some bold, convincingly sta

Author Biography

Per Petterson is the author of five novels, including In the Wake and To Siberia. Out Stealing Horses has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize. A former librarian and bookseller, Petterson lives in Oslo, Norway.

Table of Contents

“Petterson’s spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force.” —The New Yorker

“A gripping account of such originality as to expand the reader’s own experience of life.” —The New York Times Book Review

 

“Out Stealing Horses looks like a charming but modest chamber-piece. In retrospect—and this is a novel that strikes deep and lingers long—it feels more like some shattering literary symphony.” —The Independent

“A . . . miracle of a book.” —The Irish Times

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