Lars Saabye Christensen

Chasm

A big new novel by Lars Saabye Christensen: it contains brilliant stories from a summer in Oslo in the 60s and a nightmarish period spent in Karmack, a small North American town. The link is Funder, the protagonist, whose loyalty is tested when, at the age of fifteen, he stays alone with his mother (and, on and off, four aunts) for a summer spent in a house on Nesodden near Oslo. In the second half of the novel, Funder is admitted for treatment to an institution in the United States. By then, he is almost sixty years old, his father has just died and his mother is on her deathbed. Funder, who has become an author, is far from happy. Drain is a sharp and entertaining novel which is consistent with the author's earlier work but also shows new sides to his talent.

English sample translation available