Per Petterson: I Curse the River of Time

I Curse the River of Time
Per Petterson
Harvill Secker

UK ‘C’ format hardback:
ISBN 978-1-84655-300-4
27 July 2010
$42.50 in Canada

UK ‘C’ format trade paperback:
ISBN 978-1-84655-301-1
27 July 2010
$32.95 in Canada

Update 2010-01-04 — Rather than import the British edition(s) as originally planned, Random House have instead opted to publish an edition specifically for the Canadian market:

Knopf Canada
ISBN 978-0-307-39938-0
31 August 2010
$32.00 in Canada

Winner of the 2009 Nordic Council Literature Prize

It is 1989 and all over Europe Communism is crumbling. Arvid Jansen, 37, is in the throes of a divorce. At the same time, his mother is diagnosed with cancer. Over a few intense autumn days, we follow Arvid as he struggles to find a new footing in his life, while all the established patterns around him are changing at staggering speed. As he attempts to negotiate the present, he casts his mind back to holidays on the beach with his brothers, to courtship, and to his early working life, when as a young Communist he abandoned his studies to work on a production line. I Curse the River of Time is an honest, heartbreaking yet humorous portrayal of a complicated mother-son relationship told in Petterson’s precise and beautiful prose.

Karin Fossum: Broken (mass-market paperback)

Now available in mass-market paperback:

Broken
Karin Fossum
Vintage
ISBN 978-0-09-950736-9
4 August 2009
$12.99 in Canada

See also: trade paperback edition

A writer wakes one night to find a strange man in her bedroom. He is a character she has invented, but not yet used, and so desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house.

She creates Alvar Eide, a quiet, middle-aged man whose life is carefully designed to avoid surprise, but when a young heroin addict comes into the gallery where he works, Alvar’s life is changed forever and his inventor realises that she cannot control the character she has created. The result is a superb novel that plays with the boundaries of fact and fiction.

Karin Fossum: The Water’s Edge

The Water’s Edge
Karin Fossum

Harvill Secker
ISBN 978-1-84655-170-3
25 August 2009
$24.95 in Canada*

Harcourt
ISBN 978-0-15-101421-7
4 August 2009
$33.95 in Canada*

* Both Harvill (Random House UK) and Harcourt (Houghton Mifflin USA) are claiming to hold Canadian rights on this title. We’ll see how it all shakes out this summer…

Walking through the woods to Lake Linde one warm September day, Reinhardt and Kristine Ris pass a man who is in a state of agitation. Unusually in a small town, he does not return Kristine’s smile and drives off in a hurry. Near the end of their walk they make a terrible discovery: lying in a cluster of trees is the lifeless body of a young boy. It is a moment that will change their lives for ever. Inspector Sejer is called to the scene, but can find no immediate cause of death. That evening he is faced with the heavy task of telling the boy’s mother that her missing son has been found. As the weeks go by, the appeal for the man seen in the woods to come forward remains unanswered. A once peaceful community is deeply shaken and the children lose their freedom to walk alone and play wherever they wish. Then a second boy goes missing.

~~~~~

A married couple, Rikard and Kristine are out for a Sunday walk when they discover the body of a boy. And a man limping away. They alert the police, but not before Rikard, to Kristine’s horror, kneels down and takes photographs of the dead child with his cellphone. The imperturbable Sejer and Skarre begin the investigation. The boy was an only child and it appears that he died from an asthma attack following the trauma of being molested. Meanwhile, the couple’s marriage begins to unravel as Rikard becomes obsessed with the case and his own part in it. Soon thereafter another boy disappears and the mood in the town grows more tense as parents fear a predatory pedophile is on the loose.

Karin Fossum: Broken

Broken
Karin Fossum
Harvill Secker
ISBN 978-1-84655-061-4
2 July 2008
$24.95 in Canada

Original Title: Brudd
See also: mass-market paperback edition

A gripping novel set on the boundary between fact and fiction.

A woman wakes one night to find that a strange man has walked into her bedroom. She lies there in terrified silence unable to move. The woman is an author and the man one of her prospective characters. So desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house to make her tell it.

She creates Alvar Eide, forty-two years old, single, who works in an art gallery. He lives a quiet, dutiful life, carefully designed to avoid surprises. One winter’s day, all this begins to change when an emaciated young heroin addict walks into the gallery. A kind man, Alvar gives her a cup of coffee to warm her up. She returns some weeks later to his place of work, and then one day appears on his doorstep demanding to be let in.

Interspersed with the chapters of Alvar’s story are his encounters with its author — the frantic attempts of a fictional man trying to control his own destiny. Broken is a gripping novel about the boundary between fact and fiction and the perils of good intentions.

Karin Fossum: Black Seconds

Now available in mass-market paperback:

Black Seconds
Karin Fossum
Vintage
ISBN 978-0-09-950172-5
3 June 2008
$10.99 in Canada

Original Title: Svarte sekunder
En français : Secondes noires

A little girl has vanished without a trace. Inspector Sejer must find her before it’s too late — another gripping novel in Karin Fossum’s acclaimed mystery series.

Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off to buy sweets. A good-natured, happy girl, she is looking forward to her tenth birthday. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother, Helga, starts to worry. She phones the shop and various friends, but no one has seen her daughter. As the family goes out looking for Ida, Helga’s worst nightmare becomes reality, and they contact the police.

Hundreds of volunteers comb the neighbourhood, but there are no traces of Ida or her bike. As the relatives reach breaking point and the media frenzy begins, Inspector Sejer is calm and reassuring. But he finds the case puzzling. Usually missing children are found within forty-eight hours. Ida Joner seems to have vanished without a trace.