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A Novel
A tender, merciless portrait of a life going to pieces by the internationally acclaimed author of Out Stealing Horses.
Men in My Situation, Per Petterson's evocative and moving new novel, finds Arvid Jansen in a tailspin, unable to process the grief of losing his parents and brothers in a tragic ferry accident. In the aftermath, Arvid's wife, Turid, divorced him and took their three daughters with her. One year later, Arvid still hasn't recovered. He spends his time drinking, falling into fleeting relationships with women, and driving around in his Mazda. When Turid unexpectedly calls for a ride home from the train station, he has to face the life they've made without him.
Critics have already hailed Men in My Situation as the equal of Petterson's international bestseller Out Stealing Horses, in part for his unflinching portrayal of Arvid's dark night of the soul. In this moment of faltering hope and despair, Arvid's daughter Vigdis―who he's always felt understood him best―has a crisis of her own and reaches out. Now he must find a way to respond to someone who, after everything, still needs him. Reaching the heights of Petterson's best work, Men in My Situation is a heartrending, indelible story from a celebrated author.
"Petterson has written a beautifully nuanced, deeply felt, and powerful story of survival." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Petterson's bracing latest captures the rhythms and anomie of grief...Petterson's downbeat prose has a rhythm and flow both transparent and immediate, fueled by Arvid's eloquence...As deep as the well of his loneliness and sadness is, his emergence on the other side is equally gratifying. Arvid's few stray words on the disastrous fire convey its monumental effect on him. This low-key outing will particularly resonate with the author's fans." - Publishers Weekly
"American readers may have more trouble following the physical geography of Norway he covers exhaustively than the depressed, self-absorbed, but beautifully articulated meanderings of his mind. A melancholy read despite a glimmer of hope toward the end." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Men in My Situation was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Torunn Nilsen
Per Petterson, born in Oslo, Norway in 1952, worked for several years as an unskilled labourer, trained as a librarian, and worked as a bookseller, writer, and translator before publishing his first work, Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (Ash In His Mouth, Sand In His Shoe), a volume of short stories, in 1987. This book was proclaimed one of the decade's most sensational debuts.
Since then he has written a book of essays and several novels that have established his reputation as one of Norway's most significant fiction writers. These are Ekkoland (1989), Det er greit for meg (1992), To Siberia (1996), In the Wake (2000), Out Stealing Horses (2003), Månen over Porten (2004), and I Curse the River of Time (Jeg forbanner tidens elv) (2008 . For To Siberia, Petterson was nominated for the ...
Name Pronunciation
Per Petterson: PEHR
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by Christina Lynch
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In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us
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