Torkil Damhaug

Fireraiser

A fireraiser is active in Lillestrøm during Easter in 2003. He is obsessed by the cleansing effect of fire and wants to use it to wipe out everything that reminds him of his youth. Around this time, 18 year old Karsten falls in love with his classmate Jasmeen, but their romance brings the tempers of her tradition-bound Muslim family to a boiling point. To protect himself from Jasmeen’s threatening family, Karsten joins a secret brotherhood of elder peers, only to discover that the group might be much more dangerous than he could ever imagine. During Easter, Karsten disappears. He never returns.
Seven years later, Karsten’s sister Synne decides to find out everything she can about what happened when Karsten went missing. But her private investigation will have awful consequences, arousing slumbering but dangerous memories. And the fireraiser, quiescent during the intervening seven years, is now watching Synne’s search for the truth with intense interest...
Awarded the Riverton Prize ‘The Golden Revolver’ 2011.