The Reindeer Hunters
By Lars Mytting
The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since parish pastor Kai Schweigaard returned to Butangen in Gudbrandsdalen with Astrid Hekne's newborn son Jehans on his lap.…
Description
The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since parish pastor Kai Schweigaard returned to Butangen in Gudbrandsdalen with Astrid Hekne's newborn son Jehans on his lap. Facing a well-kept grave outside the new church, he is tormented by his old betrayal, which led to several deaths and the separation of the two powerful church bells. The bells were cast in memory of two conjoined sisters in Astrid's family, two mythical weavers. Schweigaard becomes obsessed with finding the ancient Hekne tapestry, made by the sisters and lost for centuries, hoping it will show how he can atone for his misdeeds and reunite the bells.
Jehans has grown up and lives in modest conditions on a homestead farm, ostracized by his own family. He instead seeks the mountains, where he enjoys freedom, fishing, and reindeer hunting. One August morning, Jehans kills a massive reindeer bull, and in the same moment encounters a mysterious hunter.
Praise
Mytting’s characters feel like real people of flesh and blood; he weaves together the literary, the psychological and the social to an artistic whole. […] And not least; he moves the reader with his great emotional range. The third installment will be wildly anticipated.
AdresseavisenThere’s no doubt that with The Reindeer Hunters , we are dealing with an author at the height of his creative power, telling the story he might always have been meant to tell. And what a story it has turned out to be! As a novel, it is outstanding, distinguishing itself both in the authorship so far and amongst this year’s published titles at large.
AftenpostenAs a whole, it is an amazing story, so deep and intense that it surpasses most recent Norwegian novels. And the intensity drives both the reader and the characters from one extreme to another.
Hamar Arbeiderblad
