| Out Stealing Horses: A Novel |  | Author: Per Petterson
Creator: Anne Born
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
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Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 3,106
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
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Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0312427085
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.82374
EAN: 9780312427085
ASIN: 0312427085
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
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Product Description
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
A TIME MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF THE IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
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. Per Petterson, author of In the Wake, has written five novels, which have established his reputation as one of Norway's best fiction writers. Out Stealing Horses has won the Norwegian Bookseller's Prize, the Critics' Award for best novel, and The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
Anne Born, poet, critic, and historian, has translated many works from the principal Scandinavian languages into English, including two previous novels by Per Petterson. Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day—an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.
At age sixty-seven, Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated part of eastern Norway to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer. "In this quiet but compelling novel, Trond Sander, a widower nearing seventy, moves to a bare house in remote eastern Norway, seeking the life of quiet contemplation that he has always longed for . . . Trond's recollections center on a single afternoon, when he and Jon set out to take some horses from a nearby farm; what began as an exhilarating adventure ended abruptly and traumatically in an act of unexpected cruelty. Petterson’s spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond's childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy’s perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man."—The New Yorker "In this quiet but compelling novel, Trond Sander, a widower nearing seventy, moves to a bare house in remote eastern Norway, seeking the life of quiet contemplation that he has always longed for. A chance encounter with a neighbor—the brother, as it happens, of his childhood friend Jon—causes him to ruminate on the summer of 1948, the last he spent with his adored father, who abandoned the family soon afterward. Trond's recollections center on a single afternoon, when he and Jon set out to take some horses from a nearby farm; what began as an exhilarating adventure ended abruptly and traumatically in an act of unexpected cruelty. Petterson’s spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond's childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy’s perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man."—The New Yorker "Among the agreeable surprises of Per Petterson's novel is the misleading suggestion that the modesty of his narrator's voice foretells a tale of minor events, an account of the sort of photorealism that prevents anything from happening. In fact, the book contains some bold, convincingly stated coincidences well outside the range of our highbrow realists . . . The characters living and dead are equally palpable, another small wonder of Out Stealing Horses . . . This short yet spacious and powerful book—in such contrast to the well-larded garrulity of the bulbous American novel today—reminds us of the careful and apropos writing of J.M. Coetzee, W.G. Sebald and Uwe Timm. Petterson's kinship with Knut Hamsun, which he has himself acknowledged, is palpable in Hamsun's Pan, Victoria, and even the lighthearted Dreamers. But nothing should suggest that his superb novel is so embedded in its sources as to be less than a gripping account of such originality as to expand the reader's own experience of life."—Thomas McGuane, The New York Times Book Review "By the time I had finished this novel I knew it for what it is: a triumph of narrative architecture and powerful imagery, and a subtle consideration of identity. It is the story of a life that was pursued one summer in a Nordic world of giant trees and fast-coursing rivers, bloody rivalries, feats of strength, desperate passion, a world where the father-son relationship is elemental and a little dangerous. But then that life, for reasons I shall leave you to discover, veers away toward the modern world, where tragedies are lit by ambulance lights. It has been some time since I have read a novel that pleased me so much in its artistic accomplishment."—Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe
"Petterson wrings great emotional depth from what seems a bare-bones tale—the decision of a 67-year-old Norwegian man to pass his final years alone in the remote countryside. Escape, especially from his past, proves elusive in an enthralling tale with some distinct prose echoes of Cormac McCarthy."—John Marshall, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"This is a novel that strikes deep and lingers long . . . like some shattering literary symphony."—The Independent (U.K.)
"Out Stealing Horses is tinged with an autumnal sense of loss and the self-examination of an old man looking back on his life . . . This book is a minor masterpiece of death and delusion in a Nordic land."—The Guardian (U.K.)
"The genius of this beautiful, candid work lies in its tone of gentle, if at times angry, reflection. There is no sentimentality, no easy nostalgia, only truths and an honest response to experience."—The Irish Times "I was completely taken with Out Stealing Horses from the first page. I found it powerful yet so quietly done I could hear myself breathe and I finished with an exhalation of awe."—Amy Tan "Haunting, minimalist prose and expert pacing give this quiet story from Norway native Petterson an undeniably authoritative presence."—Kirkus Reviews "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."—Publishers Weekly
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
 Didn't Want It To End August 24, 2010
Book Club Mom (PA)
This is the kind of book I am sorry to finish, yet having finished, I'm left with a lot to think about - reliving the characters' feelings, the turning points in their lives, and thinking forward to unwritten chapters.
I loved this book, everything about how Trond describes his family, how he does things and how he feels about being a boy and an old man.
The events in Trond's life are full of conflicting feelings between Trond, , his father, his friend, Jon, Jon's mother and father, and later Trond's mother and daughter. These are the kind of "messy" family feelings that take a lifetime to figure out, and even then, are so complicated, we often just give up and accept.
 In A Taiga Mood August 22, 2010
Gridley (asheville, north carolina USA)
The story's narrator in this first person, largely present tense account, is a nondescript man, Trond Sander. Following the death of his daughter and wife, he heads for the Norwegian outback (read taiga, or tundra) to live. It's not completely clear what his reason for this is, except to, in some fashion, simplify his life. But simplification to Sander doesn't mean divesting himself of wealth, property, and accompanying responsibilities, per se - instead the simplification he seems to be looking for is an internal one.
In his new, rural home, things are indeed simple - and humble. He has no phone, a beat-up Japanese car, and somehow sufficient food and shelter to get him through the Norwegian winter.
In his new home, he connects with old friend, Jon, with whom Trond remembers several youthful gambits, the eponymous tale of "stealing" horses. Following this episode, Jon leaves a loaded shotgun in the presence of two younger, twin brothers, Odd and Lars, and predictably, one of them, Odd, kills himself accidentally with the gun. Now Jon is away to sea, only to return to take over the family property from Lars, who seems not to care - at least to Trond.
There are other writerly contrivances: memories of cutting hay as a child with Trond's father and others, launching timber into a river to float it to market, the Nazi occupation during WWII, Trond's father a member of the Norse resistance.
My overriding question throughout most of the book: So what? Until near the end, there are no real epiphanies, few significant memories or understandings coming from the physical labor to which the aging Trond puts his shoulder. There are two significant memories, though, both near book's end, following a visit by Trond's surviving daughter, and both involving Trond's parents. The rest of the book seems a prelude to these two memories, the rest perhaps meant to lay this pair's groundwork.
Petterson does create mood; I'll give him that. And perhaps a lot of what I have a problem with is the translation by Anne Born. Where so many writers, especially the less skilled, seem to depend too much on dialogue to move character and story, along, Petterson's book seems overly dependent on his first person narrative. As a result, the book was a hard, somewhat boring experience for this reader. And in an apparent attempt to emulate Hemingway, either writer or translator (I have no knowledge of the Norse language's structure) succumbed to rambling, poorly punctuated sentences.
The thrust of Petterson's effort here is a historically noble one - to equate solitary life in the wilds with the inner resolution of a life. I only wish I could have found the book more likeable.
Subtle and poignant August 12, 2010
J. Bosiljevac (san fran, ca)
This book is about a Swedish man, Trond Sander, who, now in his 60's has recently moved to a remote cabin. He enjoys the simple tasks of his days--chopping wood, walking his dog, preparing his meals. He is alone, but not lonely, and seems perfectly content to live out his days this way. But then he meets his neighbor who, by unlikely coincidence, is the younger brother of a boyhood friend, and memories are knocked off the shelf and scattered about.
Through a series of flashbacks, Trond examines key moments of his life: a tragic event that befell his friend's family, his own family's tragedy, an adolescent attraction to his friend's mother, his father's relationship with the same woman, his father's role in the resistance against the Nazis, and a fond memory of the day when he and his father crossed the border into Sweden on horseback. Most of the memories, in fact, cast light on his relationship with his father. Like his geographic detachment, he seems to survey these key moments in his life from afar, as if he is searching for some explanation for events that set the course of his life. In the present tense, he is an astute observer of the world around him; in the past he also observes, sometimes more than he participates. This detachment seems to mirror the relationship he had with his father, a likable but mysterious man who Trond holds in complicated regard--with a combination of awe and disappointment. His father's presence in Trond's memory brings with it heavy emotional weight but few answers. It is a markedly male detachment, where words are few and much goes unspoken.
The thing that struck me over and over about this book was its subtlety. Petterson gestures with such a light hand, but somehow manages to paint vivid scenes with very simple language. I loved that aspect of the book and highlighted several passages. That the English-language version is so poetic is a testament not just to Per Petterson, but also to Anne Born, who translated it from Swedish. All-around, a fantastic book.
"You decide for yourself when it will hurt." August 9, 2010
Michael J. Ettner (Washington, DC)
This is an outstanding novel that rewards the open-hearted reader. If you are the sort of reader who keeps a pencil nearby to mark passages that "wow" you, if you're in the habit of drawing stars and exclamation points next to paragraphs that "pierce to the root" of truth, then be prepared to scratch lead onto many a page margin.
It seems to me every great author -- and Per Petterson surely is one -- possesses in his mind and keeps in his heart a distinctive worldview. To say this is, admittedly, to accept notions of imagination, intuition and emotion associated with the Romantic era. So be it. I see romanticism not as a stalled literary movement that flourished and foundered in the nineteenth century, but as an artistic spirit essentially continuous with the present. In large measure Per Petterson belongs to this ongoing tradition. Petterson's worldview is unlocked and offered to readers most convincingly in "Out Stealing Horses". Consider the heroic isolation of the book's 67-year-old narrator, Trond Sander, who has retired to a remote riverside cabin; think of Trond's desire for communion with untamed nature; note how nature's agnostic power humbles and molds the novel's characters -- these are Romantic themes, close to Petterson's heart.
The reader should know that emotion in "Out Stealing Horses" is of a subtle, unstated, internalized, "suppressed" kind. Call it Nordic Stoicism. Trond's father tells him: "You decide for yourself when it will hurt." The prospective reader should also understand that the book's principal characters (Trond's family and neighbors near the family's summer cabin on the Norway-Sweden border in 1948) are not about to commence the "talking therapy" as a way to reconcile themselves with their own or the universe's cruelty. Any reader harboring an antipathy for characters of Yankee reserve (to apply an American type to the book's Norwegian setting), or annoyed by Cormac McCarthy's characters' Western-based muteness, or bothered by taciturnity in general, should stay away. So too should readers who prefer flowing plots. Peterson forms this novel not from a smooth story arc but from punctuated incidents of revelation.
But oh what incidents grace the pages of "Out Stealing Horses" -- and oh what unflashy gorgeous prose. Time after time, nonverbal communication -- gaze and sign, gesture and touch -- ushers in direct-to-the-heart epiphanies. Episodes of evocative nature-writing transport you. Set pieces describing communal activities in rural Norway six decades ago (harvesting hay and forming hayracks without benefit of machinery; felling trees with hand saws and launching logs on their journey downriver; the morning rounds of a milkmaid) yield a nostalgic glow. So too does the young Trond's fondness for Zorro, Davy Crockett, and Lassie. The adult Trond's dog, Lyra, whose character shines through as elementally as any other creature, provides quiet comic relief. Then you shudder as a father who means everything to his son ("we had a pact") betrays that pact. And always there are bitter truths to bear. Trond's father tells him: "That's life, that's what you learn from, when things happen. You just have to take it in and remember to think afterwards and not forget and never grow bitter. Do you understand?"
This is a book that provides each new reader new reasons to praise it.
(Mike Ettner)
Beautiful Writing July 30, 2010
Cecile Driskill (California, USA)
The book arrived in great condition.
I loved the lyrical descriptions, which were nostalgic to me having spent a summer in Elverum in 1957. I had also visited Oslo while there and traveled up the west coast (seeing many beautiful fjords, waterfalls, and gorgeous scenery) and stayed a few days in Trondheim (the same latitude as Nome, Alaska).
I am close to age as the protagonist, so story interested me but didn't wow me.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
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