Mani is a recent economics graduate and has just got a job at the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence. He’s a young man who lives with his father in an apartment in Haugenstua,…
Description
Mani is a recent economics graduate and has just got a job at the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence. He’s a young man who lives with his father in an apartment in Haugenstua, a 1960s tower-block development in north-eastern Oslo, and he has a girlfriend he thinks he’s going to marry. He would have preferred to put his skills to use in the private business sector, where prestige and money count, since he is painfully aware that both his girlfriend and the environment around him only see the “public sector” with disdain. It doesn’t pay well either.
His new working life implies adjusting to a new set of values in which an old apartment in the city’s old town is coveted more than Mani’s new, expensive apartment in Skillebekk, and in which Mani’s regular kebab shop is “genuine” and ranks higher than the Theater Café. At the same time, Mani becomes a proud contributor to the great common project called The State.
Yellow Book is a novel about class and belonging, about the lives we live and what frames them. It is also a tale about where we come from and where we’re going. It’s a long way from Haugenstua to the heart of government.
Zeshan Shakar (born 1982) was born and raised in Stovner.
For his first novel, Tante Ulrikkes Street (2017), he was presented the Tarjei Vesaas debutant award.
Review:
“Read it in a single sitting! […] Zeshan Shakar reveals himself to be that rarest of writers: He takes an abundance of material from disparate cultures, fixes a keen eye on his surroundings, and writes with humour, sincerity and warmth. […] Yellow Book appears to be meticulously and inspiringly written, and Shakar exhibits clear literary talent. There are beautiful turns of phrase and astonishing metaphors here, themes great and small gently interwoven, fine dialogue and low-key scenes, social and cultural differences galore, set off with a richness of detail about music, technology and slang from youths in the Norwegian capital’s east side – and spot-on observations from the corridors of power. And all this in a little novel.” VG 6/6 stars
An exceptional storytelling talent. […] With Yellow Book, Shakar proves that Our Street was by no means a fluke, but rather the beginning of a writing career that grows ever more promising.” Bergens Tidende 5/6 stars
“Brilliant! […] Zeshan Shakar’s Yellow Book is so vivid. It’s about working life and changing one’s surroundings, about “us” and “them” and what it means to belong. About love of one kind or another, and about friendship. […] The ‘difficult second novel’ has proven not to be so difficult after all. Kudos!” Dagsavisen
“Zeshan Shakar is only just starting out as an author, but the scenes he writes are elaborate depictions of a reality that is never less than ambiguous. Do Mani and Meena really belong together? The possible answers ripple back and forth in scenes in which blood rushes to the breast and tears loiter in the corner of the eye.” NRK
“One theme radiates throughout Yellow Book. Its most heart-rending thread, about the consequences of growing up as an outsider, puts politicians’ fine words about diversity and equal opportunity to shame.” Vårt Land
“With simple ironies and an absence of grand gestures, Zeshan Shakar writes powerfully about self-awareness, ambition and disillusion.” Klassekampen
