2023
In August 1977, a man gets off the bus in an isolated village in the extreme north of Norway. He says his name is Ulf, he has no luggage, and he claims to be there for the hunting. Among the native Sami and the Læstadians, adherents of an old-fashioned form of Christianity, he discovers a culture that is both hospitable and exclusive, helpful and unfamiliar. The village sexton, Lea, lends him a rifle and a hunting cabin, where the midnight sun keeps him awake as he restlessly keeps watch on the monotonous expanse of the Finnmark plain. Slowly it dawns on Lea and her son Knut that Ulf isn’t a hunter but someone else’s prey. And that the hunters are on their way.
Audiobook read by Kim Gordon.
[An] excellent standalone… Immaculately plotted and perfectly paced, the book is also darkly funny and deadly serious. Scandinavian gloom notwithstanding, it has a neatly satisfying and surprisingly moving ending.
This forcefully written story of personal defeat, despair and salvation, translated by Neil Smith, sends a man off to lose himself in the wilderness — where he finds himself instead.
[Midnight Sun is] a fun read, with a likable protagonist and a brisk, page-turning pace. Nesbø is a talented storyteller and his narrative intuition is on full display, even without the usual guns and guts.
Beautifully told in firm, spare prose, this is the poignant story of a man confronting the worst demons and yet the rehabilitation that love can bring.
Jo Nesbø
Thron Ullberg
