Encircling

David cannot remember who he is. A notice in the newspaper urges people close to him to write, so that his memories may return, and three of them answer: Jon, a friend from his youth and a musician losing his footing; Arvid, his stepfather, a priest waiting to die; and Silje, his teenage girlfriend, now nearing middle age and perhaps drifting from her husband. Written in 2006 but turned towards the past, the letters form a web in which David’s life, the writers’ own and other people’s are retold and put at stake. False hopes surface, youthful dreams, artistic ambitions and plans, and with them the story of what became of a generation of Norwegians: gender roles, the hunt for status, identity, and how a life story is shaped by the stories of others.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

284 pages in the original

Set in

Norway, 2006

First published

2007 by Aschehoug

Author's age

37 when first published

ISBN

9788203192760 (original)

9781908745293 (Sort Of Books, United Kingdom)

9781555977627 (Graywolf Press, United States)

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Wikidata