The Spring Sacrifice
It is late March and pleasantly mild, though still with a hefty amount of snow, when lieutenant Aksel Størmer arrives in Messingdalen, the village that in pagan times sacrificed a human to ensure the arrival of spring. Aksel is set to decommission the old military camp of the area, but sparking a friendship with a neglected child instead entangles him in a tightly woven family drama.
Why does Chow Chow Inn turn quiet whenever he enters? Why does no one want to tell him what happened to Iver Tallaksen?
Gradually, the mysteries of the dark village, situated deep in the forest, reveal themselves. Soon Aksel finds himself close to people who demand greater bravery from him than the war he was supposed to be headed to.
«A rural drama of modern-day Norway.»
«Time and again the novel grips you, and you just have to read on, your heart racing, the outside world melting away.»
«At the same time painful and beautiful […] unputdownable.»
«An amazing storyteller»
«A moving, unflinching novel [...] It grabs you, holds you, forces you along down into dark crevices of the provinces of Norwegian mentality and geography alike.»
«Stylistically steady and highly enganging [...] an indisputable storytelling talent»
«Mytting is a considerable storyteller [...] the dead spots in this story can be counted on whatever protrusions you might have on your left hand.»
«Lars Mytting tackles areas of the Norwegian landscape that is often forgotten by serious literature […] Magnificent descriptions. The novel is high-paced and intense.»
«Moving and sinister depiction of rural life.»