The Mountain, the Gun, the Lake (The Illuminated Border of Memory)
Fjellet, geværet, vannet (Minnets lysende grense)
It’s the summer of 1983. For once, nine-year-old Lars spends the holidays with his father, who left the family years earlier and who has led a messy, self-destructive existence ever since. They have travelled to the farm on the west coast, where his father grew up – the farm that his father lost when he was disinherited. One day Lars’ father tells him that they’re going up in the mountains, without saying why or where. They walk without water and have very little food, but each of them carries a gun. Several times the father disappears, before appearing again. Frightened, tired and confused, the boy is unable to understand what’s going on. Is it a test? Or is his father trying to teach him something?
With great tenderness, Ramslie portrays a father who is lost in his role as a father, and a boy trying to find out who he will be. It’s a dark, mesmerizing story of love and attachment in the most precarious of circumstances.
Winner of the 2023 Oktober Prize
‘Ramslie has finally reached the eye of the hurricane … a stunningly talented, deeply moving work, as truly weighty books should be.’
Dagbladet, 6 of 6 stars
‘(…) an intensity that takes your breath away. A large part of the story is about a hike towards a mountain top, through forests and marshes – and if you’re not sweaty before surrendering to this description, you will certainly be. (…) perhaps the most heart-wrenching story of love and betrayal I have ever read.’
Dagsavisen
