Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Out Stealing Horses
Author: PETTERSON PER
Illustrator: BORN ANNE (TR)
Format: PAPERBACK
Imprint: VINTAGE UK
Price: $23.00
Publishing status: Active
In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events – the accidental death of a child, his best friend’s feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father’s decision to leave the family for another woman – will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon’s sudden breakdown. The tragedy which lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys’ families gradually to fall apart. As a 67-year-old man, and following the death of his wife, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories of that year flooding back, and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.
‘Out Stealing Horses’ Carries Away The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2006
Novelist Per Petterson, right, with translator Anne Born split equally the 10,000 prize
Champagne Taittinger, the preserves of the independently minded drinker, was once again the preferred Champagne sponsor of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – a partnership between Arts Council England and the Independent newspaper.
The 10,000 prize, which is split equally between author and translator, was awarded to the Norwegian author Per Petterson and to translator Anne Born for the novel Out Stealing Horses at a special Champagne Taittinger reception, held at the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday night. Both winners also received a magnum of Champagne Taittinger Prestige Ros.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize honours an outstanding work of fiction written by a living author, which has been translated into English from any language and published in the UK in the previous twelve months.
Already highly awarded in his home country, Per Pettersons fifth novel Out Stealing Horses has sold in excess of 140,000 copies in Norway – to a population of only 4.5 million – and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize further cements his reputation as one of Norways leading literary figures.
Speaking of his admiration for Out Stealing Horses, the novelist and Independent Foreign Fiction Prize judge Paul Bailey, who presented the award, said how the novel had delighted and captivated the judging panel, who were unanimous in their praise. And of Anne Borns translation, he added a loving translation of a lovely book.
Published in the UK by Harvill Secker in November 2005, Out Stealing Horses is the eleventh novel to find international acclaim since the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was conceived in 1991.
Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor of the Independent and one of the judges, said of this years competition This years shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize includes novels of tremendous strength and scope from some of the most distinguished writers of fiction at work today.
Any book that prevails in such a field would have to be a truly remarkable winner. Per Pettersons Out Stealing Horses is such a work.
The novel recreates the summer of 1948 in the mind of 67 year-old Trond, a lonely widower living out his autumn years in his forest home near the Swedish boarder.
His memories reveal his earlier coming-of-age as a fifteen year-old who discovers secrets about his parents, his friends, and himself that shape the future of his life.
ISBN: 9780099506133