Per Petterson Explained
| Per Petterson |
| Birth Date: | 18 July 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Oslo, Norway |
| Occupation: | Author, novelist |
| Nationality: | Norwegian |
| Genre: | Fiction |
Per Petterson (born 18 July 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels with good reviews. To Siberia (1996), set in the Second World War, was published in English in 1998 and nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. I kjølvannet, translated as In the Wake (2002), is a young man's story of losing his family in the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 (Petterson himself lost his mother, father, younger brother and a niece in the disaster); it won the Brage Prize for 2000. His 2008 novel Jeg forbanner tidens elv (I Curse the River of Time) won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2009, with an English translation published in 2010.
His breakthrough novel was Ut og stjæle hester (2003), which was awarded two top literary prizes in Norway – the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the Booksellers’ Best Book of the Year Award. The 2005 English language translation, Out Stealing Horses, was awarded the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2007 International Dublin Literary Award (the world's largest monetary literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English, €100,000). Out Stealing Horses was named one of the 10 best books of the year in the 9 December 2007 issue of the New York Times Book Review.[1]
Petterson is a librarian. He worked as a bookstore clerk, translator and literary critic before becoming a full-time writer. He cites Knut Hamsun and Raymond Carver among his influences.[2]
Petterson's works have been translated into almost 50 languages.
Bibliography
- 1987 – Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes (Aske i munnen, sand i skoa) - translated into English by Don Bartlett, 2013
- 1989 – Echoland (Ekkoland) translated into English by Don Bartlett, 2016
- 1992 – It's Fine By Me (Det er greit for meg) – translated into English by Don Bartlett, 2011
- 1996 – To Siberia (Til Sibir) – translated into English by Anne Born
- 2000 – In the Wake (I kjølvannet))
- 2003 – Out Stealing Horses (Ut og stjæle hester)
- 2004 – Månen over Porten
- 2008 – I Curse the River of Time (Jeg forbanner tidens elv)
- 2012 – I refuse. (First published with the title Jeg nekter in 2012 by Forlaget Oktober, Oslo. First published in English in 2014 by Harvill Secker, Random House, London; translated by Don Bartlett.)
- 2015 – Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, translated by Don Bartlett (first story collection re-issued 7 April 2015, by Graywolf Press.)
- 2015 – I Refuse, translated by Don Bartlett (7 April 2015 Graywolf Press, first printing in the United States.)
- 2018 – Men in My Situation, translated by Ingvild Burkey. (First published in English by Harvill Secker/Penguin Random House UK in 2021; First published with the title Menn i min situasjon in Norway by Forlaget Oktober AS in 2018.)
- 2021 – Mitt Abruzzo. Journal 21.1 – 18.7.2021. (Published in Norwegian by Forlaget Oktober in 2021; biography; 424 pages.)
Awards and Prizes
- Nordic Council Literature Prize, 2009
- Brage Prize, 2008
- Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, 2008
- International Dublin Literary Award, 2007
- One of the 5 Best Fiction Books of 2007, New York Times
- One of the 10 Best Fiction Books of 2007, Time Magazine
- A New York Library Book to Remember, 2007
- Le Prix Mille Pages, 2007
- Le Prix Litteraire Europeen Madeleine Zepter, 2007
- Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, 2006
- Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, 2003
- Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, 2003
- Brage Prize, 2000
External links
- Novelist Per Petterson on Voice, Landscape and His "New" Novel, To Siberia – Tom Christie in LA Weekly, December 9, 2008
- Per Petterson at Aschehoug Agency
- Per Petterson at Forlaget Oktober
- Bookbrowse.com – Book Summary and Media Reviews for Out Stealing Horses
- "A Northern Light: Per Petterson's Poignant Family Tales Have Placed Him on the Literary Map" – Bob Thompson, Washington Post Staff Writer, December 26, 2007
- PEN World Voices: Language Within Silence, Joy E. Stocke
- "Per Petterson: A Family Approach To Fiction" by Lynn Neary, NPR, September 26, 2010
- "Late and Soon. The novels of Per Petterson". By James Wood, The New Yorker, December 10, 2012.
Reviews
- I Curse the River of Time – Bob Thompson in The Washington Post, August 10, 2010
- I Curse the River of Time – Rachel Cusk in The Guardian, July 10, 2010
- I Curse the River of Time – Stacey D'Erasmo in The New York Times, August 13, 2010
- I Curse the River of Time – Susan Salter Reynolds in Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2010
- Out Stealing Horses – Thomas McGuane in The New York Times, June 24, 2007
- Out Stealing Horses – Paul Binding in The Independent, November 6, 2005
- Book review of Out Stealing Horses at Prairieprogressive.com
- I Refuse – The Daily Beast, August 20, 2015
Notes and References
- https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/books/review/10-best-2007.html The 10 Best Books of 2007 New York Times Book Review
- Richard Allen Greene Norwegian author reveals secrets Wednesday, 2 November 2005 BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4397538.stm
