
The Norwegian writer Per Petterson attracted a great deal of attention a few years ago with the publication of
Out Stealing Horses, followed by
To Siberia (which was actually written earlier). As a result the publication in English translation of his new novel
I Curse the River of Time (Graywolf Press) — the title is a quotation from Mao Zedong — was eagerly anticipated.
The new book is something of a sequel to
To Siberia, but it takes place several decades later. The main character, Arvid, is trying to repair his damaged relationship with his Mother, who is terminally ill; there are many flashbacks to his early life, including notably his departure from college in order to become an ordinary worker, consistent with the ardor he then felt for communism. Now it is 1989, and in addition to his mother's mortal illness Arvid's wife has left him and, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the bases of his world seem to be collapsing.
It is fascinating to me that Petterson exemplifies every stereotypical view of the frozen north and the hardbitten people who occupy it, yet manages at the same time to transcend the stereotypes and show us their distilled essence and something of our own lives as well.
— Jeremy Nussbaum
Order I Curse the River of Time (23.00), Out Stealing Horses, or Siberia (14.00 each)
