The Ballad of a Broken Nose
By Arne Svingen
Description
The main character’s name is Bart. He is 13 years old and lives with his mother in a city block that could use some restoration work, but Bart doesn’t think life necessarily gets any better by adopting a negative attitude. He attends boxing classes because his mother wants him to toughen up, and he has a secret hobby. Besides Bart we meet Ada, who can’t keep a secret, and Geir with a weird bend in his knees – and a number of other persons who have or will have some influence over Bart’s life. The Ballad of a Broken Nose is about hitting – and not hitting.
It’s about singing without anyone hearing you. And it will make you laugh. And it will make you feel uneasy. And laugh again. But most of all it is about the important days of your life, days when everything seems to happen at once and nothing ever will be the same again.
The winner of Prix Libbylit Romans Ados 2015.
Praise
Growing up in a small Norwegian city, 13-year-old Bart is well aware that his life is less than ideal, but he’s determined not to dwell on his difficulties. So it takes some time for us to see the true contours of his circumstances in The Ballad of a Broken Nose, an uplifting coming-of-age story by Norwegian writer Arne Svingen.
Wall Street JournalBart's depth and the beauty he finds in his world are winning and moving. Lovely and profound.
Kirkus Reviews (US)Svingen has taken home top prizes in his native Norway, and he makes his English-language debut with a novel that addresses difficult subjects with a gentle hand and understated humor ... With deftness and subtlety, Svingen shows a boy hanging onto optimism in the face of adversity and asserting his identity when he’s long relied on obscuring himself in the background.
Publishers Weekly (US)Rooting for a genuinely good kid is universal, and readers will warm to Bart’s quirkiness even as they cheer his well-earned success.
Project Muse (US)The Ballad of a Broken Nose is a fun read and contains lessons about keeping problems in perspective and keeping an eye on the prize no matter how tough things get that would be useful for young readers. (…) Bart’s story is a motivational one and Svingen’s writing is very fun and easy to read
Teenreads (US)This could be one of the best children's books of the year ... an unusually exciting and funny story about an unusually sad teenage life. The language and characters are highly realistic, and the book is packed with striking one-liners and singular events.
Dagbladet (Norway)
