By Peter on Apr 1, 2009 in Excellent book, Fiction Books, Norwegian Writer, Susan Choi, The World of Books, Thriller, bestseller, book review | 0 Comments
After fictionalizing elements of the Patty Hearst kidnapping for her second novel (the 2004 Pulitzer finalist American Woman: A Novel), here Choi combines elements of the Wen Ho Lee accusations and the Unabomber case to create a haunting meditation on the myriad forms of alienation.
The suggestively named Lee, as he’s called throughout, is a solitary [...]
By Peter on Jan 22, 2009 in Classical novel, Fiction Books, Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian Writer, World literature, book review | 0 Comments
Brand is the drama of absolute intransigence in support of the religious life as opposed to the hedonistic one. The motto of Brand, the main character, is “All or nothing”. He is a strong person, a very stubborn Norwegian, and he does not admit compromises nor expedients, but goes directly to his goal, over-riding [...]
By Peter on Aug 2, 2008 in About authors, Cormac McCarthy, Excellent book, Ken Follett, Norwegian Writer, Paolo Coelho, Per Petterson, The World of Books, Thriller, bestseller | 0 Comments
Per Petterson is placed on the 16th place on the New York Times bestseller list for paperbacks this week! Very nice for Per Petterson!
Paperback Trade Fiction, Published: August 10, 2008
1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young. A man whose daughter was abducted is invited to an isolated shack, apparently by God.
2. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by [...]
By Peter on Jun 15, 2008 in Classical novel, Norwegian Writer, World literature | 0 Comments
(Oslo : Aschehoug, 1932, New York : Knopf, 1933.) Ida Elisabeth marries Frithjof, her teenage sweetheart. They get four children together, but only two of them live to grow up. Soon Ida Elisabeth discovers that she has married a real shirker of a man.
When Frithjof embarks on an affair with another woman, Ida Elisabeth [...]
By Peter on Jan 30, 2008 in Crime Books, Jo Nesbo, Norwegian Writer | 0 Comments
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo won the Glass Key prize for the best Nordic crime novel when it was first published, and was subsequently voted Norway’s best crime novel. Jo Nesbo ( Nesbø in Norwegian) is a young, wonderfully gifted storyteller that increasingly is being noticed among crime book readers in the US and UK. [...]
By Peter on Jan 19, 2008 in Fiction Books, Norwegian Writer | 0 Comments
While Before You Sleep was not viewed as controversial in Norway, American reviewers have regarded it as a “detailed and sexually frank novel.” Such labels aside, Before You Sleep is a great and interesting story of a Norwegian family, Blom, with strong and also somewhat eccentric women, that spans several generations. The story moves [...]
By Peter on Jan 12, 2008 in Fiction Books, Historical Fiction, Norwegian Writer | 2 Comments
I just recently found Giants in the Earth on the Internet, more or less by accident. It is a great book, wonderful even. Rolvaag (or Rølvåg or Rölvaag, depending) seems to be somewhat known among Norwegian-Americans, hardly known at all to Danish-Americans or Swedish-Americans, and known by only a very, very few in Norway and [...]
By Peter on Jan 3, 2008 in Fiction Books, Norwegian Writer, Science Fiction Books | 0 Comments
The Danish-Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg, (born Bergen, Norway 1684, died Sorø, Denmark 1754) was a prolific and entertaining writer, famous mostly for his extremely amusing, divine comedies (Jeppe on the Hill and Erasmus Montanus are probably the best known). However, he also wrote a story that may be considered one of the first science fiction [...]
By Peter on Dec 31, 2007 in Fiction Books, Jens Bjorneboe, Norwegian Writer | 0 Comments
Moment of Freedom is the first book in the Bjorneboe trilogy known as History of Bestiality. The two other books are Powderhouse and The Silence.
This is a grand work. The anarchic Bjorneboe despised repression and repressive institutions, as well as authority. This trilogy is a broadly founded literary attack on the multiple foundations of repressive [...]
By Peter on Dec 20, 2007 in Fiction Books, Norwegian Writer | 0 Comments
Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved is a wonderful novel, beautifully written, but also a very demanding book to read, intellectually as well as emotionally.
Siri Hustvedt is an American, but with Norwegian parents. She lives in New York, and is married to, and have a daughter with, the author Paul Auster. She has a Ph.D. in [...]
