Staff Pick
It's dark out and the icy cold only makes the night more forbidding. Vibeke is on her way home from work, and after dinner she and her young son, Jon, will unknowingly go their separate ways. On the surface, nothing is wrong. But as the tiny, jarring oddities add up and the distance expands between the characters' internal and external worlds, it becomes clear that everything is wrong. Ørstavik steadily ramps up the tension until it is almost unbearable and I felt like I was watching the subtlest of horror films: I wanted to hide, but I didn't want to look away. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
WINNER OF THE 2019 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A mother and son move to a village in northern Norway, each ensconced in their own world. Their distance has fatal consequences.
Love is the story of Vibeke and Jon, a mother and son who have just moved to a small place in the north of Norway. It's the day before Jon's birthday, and a travelling carnival has come to the village. Jon goes out to sell lottery tickets for his sports club, and Vibeke is going to the library. From here on we follow the two individuals on their separate journeys through a cold winter's night - while a sense of uneasiness grows. Love illustrates how language builds its own reality, and thus how mother and son can live in completely separate worlds. This distance is found not only between human beings, but also within each individual. This novel shows how such distance may have fatal consequences.