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Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson

Out Stealing Horses Cover

ISBN13: 9780312427085
ISBN10: 0312427085
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Awards

Winner of the 2007 IMPAC Dublin Award
A Time Magazine Best Book of the Year
Named one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review

Staff Pick

Hailed by critics across the globe, showered with awards, Out Stealing Horses is a book that true lovers of the written word will hold close to their hearts. With its captivating prose and characters who burrow under your skin and refuse to come out, Per Petterson's haunting, elegiac novel is so good, you'll want to buy multiple copies so you can always have one for yourself, no matter how many friends want to borrow it (and they will!).
Recommended by Hank, Powells.com

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"It's a masculine and spare story, and Petterson tells it in sentences stripped of emotion and literary pretense....The style befits not only the stark Norwegian landscape, but it's perfectly befitting a man as emotionally distant as Trond." Peter Martin, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Out Stealing Horses has been embraced across the world as a classic, a novel of universal relevance and power. Panoramic and gripping, it tells the story of Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man who has moved from the city to a remote, riverside cabin, only to have all the turbulence, grief, and overwhelming beauty of his youth come back to him one night while he's out on a walk. From the moment Trond sees a strange figure coming out of the dark behind his home, the reader is immersed in a decades-deep story of searching and loss, and in the precise, irresistible prose of a newly crowned master of fiction.

Review:

"Award-winning Norwegian novelist Petterson renders the meditations of Trond Sander, a man nearing 70, dwelling in self-imposed exile at the eastern edge of Norway in a primitive cabin. Trond's peaceful existence is interrupted by a meeting with his only neighbor, who seems familiar. The meeting pries loose a memory from a summer day in 1948 when Trond's friend Jon suggests they go out and steal horses. That distant summer is transformative for Trond as he reflects on the fragility of life while discovering secrets about his father's wartime activities. The past also looms in the present: Trond realizes that his neighbor, Lars, is Jon's younger brother, who 'pulls aside the fifty years with a lightness that seems almost indecent.' Trond becomes immersed in his memory, recalling that summer that shaped the course of his life while, in the present, Trond and Lars prepare for the winter, allowing Petterson to dabble in parallels both bold and subtle. Petterson coaxes out of Trond's reticent, deliberate narration a story as vast as the Norwegian tundra. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"This short yet spacious and powerful book...reminds us of the careful and apropos writing of J. M. Coetzee, W. G. Sebald and Uwe Timm." Thomas McGuane, New York Times

Review:

"The novel's incidents and lush but precise descriptions...are on a par with those of Cather, Steinbeck, Berry, and Hemingway, and its emotional force and flavor are equivalent to what those authors can deliver, too." Booklist

Review:

"Haunting, minimalist prose and expert pacing give this quiet story from Norway native Petterson an undeniably authoritative presence." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Petterson captures perfectly the flavor of adolescence." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Review:

"American readers should feel fortunate to have this beautiful translation of Petterson's work; finally, we are given the opportunity to step inside his graceful, deeply felt universe." Minneapolis Star Tribune

Review:

"Petterson has established his reputation abroad, winning several international prizes...but he deserves critical acclaim here as well. Highly recommended for all fiction collections." Library Journal

Review:

"[R]emarkable....Now and then a book comes along that deserves the label 'classic.' Out Stealing Horses is in that class, a rough woodcut that portrays the very mystery of life itself." Dallas Morning News

Synopsis:

An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life that are gone forever.

Synopsis:

Out Stealing Horses has been embraced across the world as a classic, a novel of universal relevance and power. Panoramic and gripping, it tells the story of Trond Sander, a 67-year-old man who has moved from the city to a remote, riverside cabin, only to have all the turbulence, grief, and overwhelming beauty of his youth come back to him one night while he's out on a walk. From the moment Trond sees a strange figure coming out of the dark behind his home, the reader is immersed in a decades-deep story of searching and loss, and in the precise, irresistible prose of a newly crowned master of fiction.

About the Author

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.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 5 comments:
leaf slayer, February 17, 2009 (view all comments by leaf slayer)
The writing is great and elements of the story are compelling but ultimately I was unsatisfied with the book. I wanted more from it, not necessarily more overt explanation of events in the story but just something more. I'll keep the book and possibly revisit it in the future. I'm open to reading more by this author.

--LS
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(8 of 12 readers found this comment helpful)
Wendy Robards, January 17, 2009 (view all comments by Wendy Robards)
In his sixty-seventh year, Trond Sander purchases a house in the Norwegian countryside and seeks the solitude and silence for which he longs.

Trond’s only company is a dog named Lyra and an older man who lives in a cabin near the river not too far from Trond’s home. There in the desolate and beautiful wilderness and as he gets to know his neighbor, Trond begins to remember the summer of 1948 when he was fifteen years old and on the cusp of becoming a man. It is these memories which drive the novel forward - a slow unraveling of one fateful summer where everything changed. As Trond reveals the multiple layers of his past, he comes to grips with his present and begins to gain an understanding of the man he has become.

Out Stealing Horses is in part about a boy’s relationship with his father which is both touching and compelling. Trond’s father is a complex man with a mysterious past - a man who worked for the Norwegian underground during the Nazi occupation, and who has formed connections which the young Trond is just beginning to understand.

Petterson seamlessly moves between the past and present, gradually revealing each character and putting together the pieces of Trond’s life. This is a novel rich with emotion, one that explores pain, betrayal, identity, and loss. The language of the novel is evocative, simple and luminous.

I was mesmerized by this book. Seemingly a simple tale, it later reveals itself to be a complex study of grief and loss. This is not a book to be read quickly, but one which should be savored.

Highly recommended.
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(7 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
suze, June 18, 2008 (view all comments by suze)
This has been my favorite book of the year. Petterson has the ability to invoke the most heart-felt emotion in the clearest, most concise way.
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(16 of 36 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780312427085
Author:
Petterson, Per
Publisher:
Picador USA
Translator:
Born, Anne
Author:
Born, Anne
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Norway
Subject:
Social isolation
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Copyright:
Edition Description:
First Edition, First Edition
Publication Date:
April 29, 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
A)</P>
Language:
English
Pages:
238
Dimensions:
851x526x68 53

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