Short stories of youth
Haavardsholm, Espen: Noveller om ungdomAnna’s favourite uncle worked in the World Trade Center. After 9/11 he has vanished without a trace. Has he fooled everybody in order to realize his secret plan of hiding away on a pacific island? A substitute teacher is haunted in his dreams by a pupil who was stabbed to death by his stepfather. How could it happen without anybody trying to interfere? In a fir grove early one morning she meets the boy with the sideburns. Isn’t it strange that he was also woken by a peculiar dream, a dream similar to the one she had? What’s it like being 17 and losing one’s father?
The eleven stories in this collection portray how it feels not fitting in, but they are also about being in love, friendship and belonging. With empathy and sensitivity Haavardsholm depicts young people in different situations.
Stories from this collection have appeared in anthologies in Germany, Russia and Hungary.
Praise for Short stories of Youth:
“Eleven stories which at their best are brilliant and unsurpassable.”
(Dagsavisen, Norway)
“Brilliant short stories […] literary craft of the highest order […] Has anybody written better stories than this since [Tarjei] Vesaas put down his pen in 1970? I don’t think so.”
(Fædrelandsvennen, Norway)
“Beautiful, warm and intimate”
(Aftenposten, Norway)
First published: 2002, Forlaget Oktober
Espen Haavardsholm: Biography and bibliography
