Synopses & Reviews
Per Petterson’s masterful American debut novel is the story of a man whose life stands still after a terrible accident. Spanning an intense period of only a few weeks, In the Wake features 43 year-old Arvid, a writer who lost his parents and younger brothers in a ferry accident some years before. It is especially against his repressed memories--of his father and mother, and of his still-living brother--that Arvid must regard and define his own life. As Arvid struggles with memories, existential questions, and a deep sense of the world’s injustice, he remains overwhelmed by grief, and guilt at having survived. Work on his novel stalls as he moves through life in a cold haze. But while Arvid’s only human contact is with his Kurdish neighbor and with a woman whom he glimpses in a flat across the road, it is this routine contact that begins to slowly remind him of the world---of the beauty and humor we can find in the mundane. As he is reminded, his memories begin to return, and he begins to write again. Poignant, restrained, darkly funny, and at times unbearably moving, In the Wake takes on terrible tragedy as one man begins to reconnect with the natural world--at times our only source of solace when we’ve been left to survive in the wake.
Review
"Per Petterson demonstrates, through his own commanding art, the solace of the written word as well as the necessity of human connection. It is understandable why European readers have long admired his work."--
The New York Times
"This riveting story is as universal as love and death . . . Holds the reader in a hypnotic thrall."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Petterson's words have a music reminiscent of W. G. Sebald."--The New York Times Book Review
"A profound novel. Masterfully written."--Library Journal
"An impressive American debut."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"In the Wake is, among other things, a story about literature itself, about its power to illuminate grief and inspire resilience. In In the Wake Mr. Petterson demonstrates, through his own commanding art, the solace of the written word as well as the necessity of human connection. It is understandable why European readers have long admired his work."--THE NEW YORK TIMES"A profound novel. Masterfully written . . . this novel is both timely and timeless. A beautifully enlightening treatise on grief and identity disguised as a novel. Highly recommended."--Library Journal
Synopsis
Like Paul Auster's
Book of Illusions, Per Petterson's masterful American debut novel tells the story of a writer whose life stands still after a terrible accident takes the lives of his parents and younger brothers. The grief and guilt he feels over having survived is too overwhelming, and work on his novel stalls as he moves through life in a cold haze. Arvid's only human contact is with his Kurdish neighbor and with a woman whom he glimpses in a flat across the road. Then, slowly, the memories begin to return. He begins to write again.
Poignant, restrained and at times unbearably moving, In the Wake takes on terrible tragedy as one man senses the beauty of the natural world -- at times our only source of solace. “A profound novel. Masterfully written . . . this novel is both timely and timeless. A beautifully enlightening treatise on grief and identity disguised as a novel. Highly recommended.”--Library Journal
Synopsis
Per Petterson's masterful American debut novel is the story of a man whose life stands still after a terrible accident. Spanning an intense period of only a few weeks, In the Wake features 43 year-old Arvid, a writer who lost his parents and younger brothers in a ferry accident some years before. It is especially against his repressed memories--of his father and mother, and of his still-living brother--that Arvid must regard and define his own life. As Arvid struggles with memories, existential questions, and a deep sense of the world's injustice, he remains overwhelmed by grief, and guilt at having survived. Work on his novel stalls as he moves through life in a cold haze. But while Arvid's only human contact is with his Kurdish neighbor and with a woman whom he glimpses in a flat across the road, it is this routine contact that begins to slowly remind him of the world---of the beauty and humor we can find in the mundane. As he is reminded, his memories begin to return, and he begins to write again. Poignant, restrained, darkly funny, and at times unbearably moving, In the Wake takes on terrible tragedy as one man begins to reconnect with the natural world--at times our only source of solace when we've been left to survive in the wake.
Synopsis
"A profound novel. Masterfully written ... both timely and timeless. A beautifully enlightening treatise on grief and identity disguised as a novel. Highly recommended."---Library Journal
Synopsis
When Arvid Jansen comes-to one morning in the doorway of a bookstore in Oslo, Norway, his grief comes back to him in devastating flashes: His parents and his brothers are dead, he has lost touch with his wife and daughters, abandoned his career as a writer and bookseller. His old life is gone.
In the Wake is the story of Arvid's first steps toward resuming that life, of his gradual confrontation with everything he lost and ultimately with his own role in the disaster that killed his family.
Told with the insight and moral force of his countryman Knut Hamsun, In the Wake is the American debut of a treasured European writer.
About the Author
Per Petterson was a librarian and bookseller before publishing his first book in 1987. In the Wake is the first of his novels to be published in the U.S. Out Stealing Horses, his second novel, will be published by Graywolf Press in June 2007. He lives in Oslo, Norway.