2024
Dentist Karl Meyer's worst nightmare comes true when his son, Ole-Jakob, takes his own life. This tragedy forms the springboard for a complex and diverse novel, which asks essential questions about human experience. What does sorrow do to a person? How can one live with the pain of unbearable loss? How far will a man be driven by the grief and despair surrounding the loss of his child?
Gjennom natten is a dark story, drawing on elements from dreams, fairy-tales and horror stories, as it explores the mysterious ways of sorrow and love.
‘Stig Sæterbakken’s novel Gjennom natten must be one of this year’s most fabulous ones – in the fabulous books’ darkest, most heart-rending way.’
‘Stig Sæterbakken’s first paragraph in the novel Gjennom natten is a brilliant start to a black and heart-breaking journey in mourning.’
‘Garanteed one of this year’s best novels … This is Sæterbakken at his best, and Norwegian literature doesn’t get much better than this.’
‘… a language which makes you hold your breath in the right places, and chase from side to side, from room to room, as if in a suspense novel.’
‘Stig Sæterbakken sounds deeper than most writers, and with Gjennom natten he has added a new dark, painful and artistically successful novel to his authorship.’
‘An almost inapproachable theme, which writer Stig Sæterbakken circles in in a way which can be called a literary feat of strength.'
‘A black, merciless masterpiece from Stig Sæterbakken … The language never becomes a shield or a filter, to the contrary, it drills into the darkness, with a precision and ingenuity in the use of images which paradoxically feels like a relief.’
‘This novel by Stig Sæterbakken is strong and fine and deadly serious, en ambitious, excellent narrative in a stylish and simple, but effective language.’
‘Sæterbakken writes about the labyrinth of sorrow and does it beautifully.’
‘As the novel moves on to take place in that house, you know the one, in Bratislava, you really feel as if the entire experience of reading vanished into the night. You can’t quite work out what is going on, but your spine is tingling with anxiety.’
‘You do know the feeling, don’t you? Wishing that the book would never end? Your attempts to hold back to make reading last, not read too much in one go? Such books are rare. But Stig Sæterbakken’s latest novel Gjennom natten is one of these.'
Stig Sæterbakken
Photo: Jo Michael
