The Sixteen Trees of the Somme
In the autumn of 1971, a couple is found deceased in France, in an enclosed, wooded area that once was a battlefield in the first World War. Their three-year-old son, Edvard, has disappeared without a trace. Four days later, he turns up in an entirely different part of the country.
No one knows where Edvard has been, and he grows up on a mountain farm in the Gudbrandsdalen valley in Norway, together with his taciturn grandfather.
What was his parents doing in the enclosed grove, and was it an accident when they stepped on an old gas grenade from the war years?
And for the grandfather’s funeral, who is it that has sent an exquisitely elaborate coffin, crafted from a sort of wood never seen before?
The search for answers brings 23 year-old Edvard both to Shetland and back to France, where he needs to dig deep in the darkest crevices of his family’s past. A past closely connected to the biggest events of 20th century Europe, as well as to the passion of a master carpenter who sought his fortune in 1930s Paris.
«A feast to read – probably the compelling novel of the year.»
«Gleaming novel […] a knack for storytelling to be enthusiastically applauded.»
«Amazingly ambitious novel about war, love and belonging.»
«Gleaming, engaging, and artful storytelling [...] this is definitely a breakthrough.»
«Gleaming.»
«If Norwegian Wood didn’t make Lars Mytting a household name, this novel will.»
«Vast and intimate at the same time – and not the least beautiful.»
«The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is an unputdownable page-turner.»
«Magnificent about man and woods.»
«An intricate, entertaining family saga, spanning wide both temporarily and spatially.»
«Lars Mytting’s prose convinces and seduces, whether it drives the plot forward or splendidly conjures characters, atmospheres or artefacts.»
«A charming and extremely engaging family saga […] This is literature in the first division.»