Rate this book

Voordat Ik Brand (2010)

by Gaute Heivoll(Favorite Author)

3.41 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

9044626647 (ISBN13: 9789044626643)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Prometheus

review 1: I wanted to like it. The atmospherics, the spare writing style are qualities that usually appeal to me. But somehow reading this book felt like watching an old Bergman black and white film (I know I know - Heivoll's Norwegian, Bergman's Swedish)through a pane of double glazing.There's the distance/separation between viewer and viewed, the faint reflection of one's own face obscuring the view. It's all very muted with no sense of immediacy. The real and fictional authors are both a bit blurry, for all the simple clear declarative sentences. Maybe it's the translation? Maybe not.
review 2: So this is my first "Scandinavian crime novel" and I really liked it. The lines are blurred between it being a memoir and a novel, and I was so intrigued by the parallels ... morethe narrator draws between himself as a writer and Dag--the young man who becomes the arsonist. The novel makes for a great book club discussion because there are so many unanswered questions and complicated relationships to talk about. It had me staying up late a few nights and was a little nerve-wracking to read. I've never really thought about arson that much. It's pretty disturbing. less

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