Gaute Heivoll

The Axe for the Frozen Sea

«A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,» Franz Kafka
writes in a letter. Borrowing its title from this quote, Gaute Heivoll’s
new book simultaneously indicates the themes of its ten short
stories: departure and stagnation, love and cold, literature and life
– new, open horizons.
A young man has been accepted to writing academy, and meets a
teacher he believes might release the writer in him. However, maybe
what is to be released is not a writer, but a whole human being. A
woman remembers the night German soldiers came to her door
and she was convinced they would be arrested. A writer receives a
death threat because of a book he has written, and writes a letter to
the killer, a letter that will have unforeseen consequences.
In The Axe for the Frozen Sea, Gaute Heivoll proves he is an eminent
storyteller. Few writers are able, in such a condensed way, to capture
whole lives while simultaneously retaining the epic ring of a truly
grand story.