Echoland

Originally published in 1989 and appearing in the United States for the first time, this debut from Dublin IMPAC Award winner Petterson (Out Stealing Horses) follows Arvid Jansen, a 12-year-old boy from Norway. (He’s seen as a grown-up in Petterson’s forthcoming Men in My Situation.) While visiting his grandparents in Denmark, Arvid begins to notice complexities within his family. His grandfather, a woodworker, is forever strict and tight-lipped while his religious grandmother tends to sit, weep, and run her store. There are signs of his parents’ troubled marriage, grief over the loss of a child, and catastrophic experiences during World War II. As the summer progresses, Arvid becomes aware of changes in his beloved sister, Gry, as she matures, and he experiences his own sexual awakening. Petterson writes like a jazz musician, in percussive, lyrical, vivid prose; describing the journey by boat from Norway to Denmark, he recounts the bounce of each wave and the smell of the sea air. Allusions to the characters’ past lives and motivations appear throughout, but, effectively, much remains hidden.