Ola parked in the middle of Karl Johan. The university square was crammed with people. They were dancing and jumping around with flags and bottles and fireworks. The clouds in the sky cleared and we threw ourselves into the mayhem, we were carried away, delirious with happiness. We turned cartwheels and were the conquerors of the world.
Then I turned my back on the euphoria and the chaos and left them to it, posted a letter to my mother in the box next to Hotel Continental and continued on down to the quay. The City Hall clock struck six. Soon the first ferry from Nesodden would arrive.
I stood on the deck all the way there.
About the Author
LARS SAABYE CHRISTENSEN is Norway’s leading contemporary writer. He is the author of twelve novels as well as short stories and poetry. His international best-selling novel The Half Brother has been published in nearly thirty countries. It won the Nordic Prize for Literature as well as the Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize, was shortlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and was chosen as one of the twenty-five notable titles of 2004 by the American Library Association. Herman was shortlisted for the 2006 YoungMinds Award, and The Model was shortlisted for the 2008 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Lars Saabye Christensen lives in Oslo.
DON BARTLETT lives with his family in a village in Norfolk. He translates from Scandinavian literature and has recently translated, or co-translated, novels by Roy Jacobsen, K.O. Dahl, Jo Nesbø and Ingvar Ambjørnsen.
Copyright
Arcadia Books Ltd
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London W10 6PH
www.arcadiabooks.co.uk
This Ebook edition published by Arcadia Books in 2014
First published in the United Kingdom by Arcadia Books 2009 Originally published by J.W. Cappelen Forlag AS, Oslo 1984 This Ebook edition published by Arcadia Books in 2014
Copyright © Lars Saabye Christensen 1984
This English translation from the Norwegian copyright © Don Bartlett 2009
Lars Saabye Christensen has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–1–908129–55–0
This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA.
Arcadia Books supports English PEN www.englishpen.org and The Book Trade Charity www.btbs.org
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