Steinar Opstad

Drought Summer

Drought Summer is Steinar Opstad’s first novel.

It tells the story of twelve-year-old Snorre Buvin, who lives through a dramatic summer, both in wardly and outwardly. The village of Vestre Spån is suffering from drought, and his father, along with the other farmers, fears the consequences. Snorre’s mother becomes mentally ill and is eventually hospitalized. The neighboring farmer Rolleiv becomes important to Snorre, until something happens between them that should never have happened. Snorre feels different. At times, he does not know whether he is a boy, a girl, or an elf.

Drought Summer is written in a vivid, poetic language that cultivates a distinctly literary orality.