The River That Runs Around Life
By Remi Skytterstad
An ambitious and compelling debut novel.
Description
In the Tana Valley, the river flows around the lives of those who grow up along its banks, carrying memories and stories that can never fully be told.
In the 1930s, twin brothers Mattis and Aslak struggle to stay together in the cramped dormitories of a boarding school. One learns to adapt. The other refuses. With every new word they are forced to speak in a language that is not their own, the distance between them grows.
Three hundred years earlier, the young Kvive struggles to earn his place as a man in his siida, while missionaries and government authorities tighten their grip on everything he knows. When the Northern Lights open up the world before him and the becomes a language he can no longer turn away from, he witnesses both miracles and devastation.
Praise
"An ambitious, complex, and powerful story about the strength it takes to be oneself."
NRKThe River That Runs Around Life is an exceptionally powerful novel on the level of ideas. Remi Skytterstad digs deep and turns the questions over from every angle, illuminating the complexity of concepts such as cultural preservation and language policy.
AftenpostenRemi Skytterstad makes his debut with a powerful, uncompromising, and distinctive novel that carries a story we should not remain silent about. [...] The River That Runs Around Life is a debut far above average.
VGThe River Tana becomes a source of beauty, pain, and ideas in Remi Skytterstad's powerful debut novel about linguistic and geographical belonging.
MorgenbladetThe River That Runs Around Life is a formally accomplished, intellectually ambitious, and deeply engaging novel, and the most distinctive debut I have read in many years.
Klassekampen
