This most profoundly Norwegian of novels is taking me on a strange, dreamlike trip through a different life and mind. Per Petterson does a remarkable job of capturing the state of mind of Trond, the protagonist, both as a young man and as an old one. The essence of Norway pervades this book, both in the details of the surroundings and in the language. The sentence structure fairly breathes of the language and the mindset of the people who speak it.
The story that unfolds slowly, an odd, mysterious layering of events and events seen with the wisdom of later years, has to do with relationships, with things said and unsaid. I'm actually within a few pages of the end, so there may be some final event that brings something into focus.
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