Echoes of the city (Innbundet)

Ewald and Maj

Series: Byens spor 1

Author:

Lars Saabye Christensen

Norwegian title: Byens spor - Ewald og Maj
Author:
Binding: Innbundet
Year: 2017
Pages: 448
Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Språk: Bokmål
Series: Byens spor
Serienummer: 1
ISBN/EAN: 9788202562113
Kategori: Literature and Fiction
Overview Byens spor - Ewald og Maj
A new epic story from Lars Saabye Christensen!
We've all stood on a street corner and let the city's lights and sounds pass by. What do we hear when we listen to the sounds of the city? What traces do they leave in us? Who is at the other end of the line when the phone rings? What story can we deduce from the protocols from Fagerborg's branch of the Red Cross in the post-war years? How do the stories all connect? When someone loses something, someone else finds something different. The city and the streets are the same as before, but the people who emerge in Echoes of the City have never been seen before.
At the center are Ewald and Maj Kristoffersen, but their fates are closely interwoven with the city and the streets they live on: At Bristol (where Ewald spends a lot of time with his colleagues), the pianist Enzo Zanetti plays, while the widow Mrs. Vik lives above them. Down the road a couple has a butcher shop. They have a son, Jostein, who goes deaf after a traffic accident. Jesper, Ewald and Maj's son, promises to be his ears in the world. The butcher couple and Mrs. Vik have a telephone, but not the Kristoffersen family. Maj is a treasurer for the Red Cross, where the female leaders are married to the doctor who declares Jesper to be too sensitive. Jesper takes piano lessons from Enzo Zanetti, Mrs. Vik meets the widower Olaf Hall who runs the second-hand bookshop at the cemetery. His stepson, Bjørn Stranger, is the one who saves Jostein's life when he gets run over.
We become acquainted with all these characters and more when we put our ears to the city's conch and listen to it. There are few – if any – who can conjure up a time and place in a way that makes it alive for us here and now like Lars Saabye Christensen. Through epic works like Beatles, The Half Brother and Magnet, Lars Saabye Christensen has created a universe that has become common property. With Echoes of the City, he has written a breathtaking and magnificent start to what will be a new trilogy.
Press reviews:

‘With its tonal nuance and quietly amusing melancholy, Echoes Of The City confirms him as one of Norway’s finest writers.’
THE GUARDIAN

‘A profoundly resonant novel that reveals not only personal interaction but significant economic and societal shifts in postwar Norway’
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT


‘Found notebooks become great literature.’
BERLINSKE 5/6

On the trail of a lost Oslo
‘A book that exudes quality from start to finish… Lays the foundations for a marvellous trilogy.’
POLITIKKEN, 5/6

Literary critic Fredrik Wandrup recommends:
It’s a major event when Fagerborg’s answer to Charles Dickens publishes the first volume in a new novel cycle. This time, the starting-point for the intrigue is the discovery of a diary kept by the narrator’s mother, who worked for the Red Cross. Full of engaging characters and memorable atmospheres.’
ARENDALS TIDENDE

Oslo West
Here, he is truly on home ground – both thematically and linguistically. The novel can be seen as a tour of the city that is high in both literary and historical content.’

‘There is a freshness, an audacity and a playfulness in Saabye Christensen that are almost unparalleled in modern Norwegian fiction. He can even make stock phrases and clichéd expressions shine just by tweaking the word order a bit, or placing it all in new contexts.’
JAN-ERIK ØSTLIE, FRI FAGBEVEGELSE

Echoes of the City is, in many ways, what readers want to have (…) combined with Saabye Christensen’s unique touch, this book could be making regular appearances in our “On the beside table” column for a long time to come.’
DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV

‘As we are drawn into the everyday life of the people, and get caught up in joys and sorrows, and challenges large and small, it’s good to know that this is the first volume in a trilogy. We’ll be going back there in a while.’
DAG OG TID

‘Here Saabye Christensen is at his best. May he stay like this for a long time.
NRK

‘A novel of the kind that does not shout loudly, but is carried by fine personal portraits and wisdom disguised as sparkling gold grains, in turn, consolidating Lars Saabye Christensen's position as Oslo's premier home town poet.’
DAGSAVISEN

‘Lars Saabye Christensens writing put you in a good mood, and sometimes make you laugh out loud. But the characteristic vulnerability is strongly present, both in the written sentences and between the lines. Even more so than before.’
ADRESSEAVISA 5/6

‘A portrait formulated with the poetic melancholy, so typical to Saabye Christensen when he is at his best.’
DAGBLADET 5/6

‘In the references, but maybe foremost in the loaded dialogue between the people in the book, echoes a certain lingual musicality delivered by one of our foremost literary impressionists.’
VG 5/6

‘This is a story that reaches far into the roots of your heart. Warmth, sympathy and the ability ”to live with” characterize this novel, telling the tale of life in Oslo just after WWII.’

FÆDRELANDSVENNEN 5/6

But it is this he wants to show us; all the details, looks and gestures, all the sensible and human that we are missing out of in our time, with our vision glued to an iPhone. I do not think that I am completely mistaken if I say that the fans, the hard core ones, are going to really love this perspective.’

AFTENPOSTEN

‘It's a book filled with sorrow and wistfulness for a time torn between faith in the future and the community's need for social control. It's Lars Saabye Christensen on home turf. It's the author at his best.’
FÆDRELANDSVENNEN

‘In this magnificent novel Lars Saabye Christensen delivers quoteworthy and goldlike sentences, vigorous word play and surprising associations.’
BOK365

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More books by Lars Saabye Christensen:

Reviews Byens spor - Ewald og Maj

Saabye på sitt beste 06.10.2017

«Lars Saabye Christensen skriver så du jevnt humrer, av og til ler høyt. Men den karakteristiske sårheten er sterkt nærværende både i og mellom linjene. Enda mer enn før.»

 
Ole Jacob Hoel, Adresseavisen

Gled deg til denne 07.10.2017

"[...] et portrett formulert med den poetiske melankoli som kjennetegner Saabye Christensen på sitt aller beste."

 
Cathrine Krøger, Dagbladet

«Men her viser Saabye Christensen også for alvor klo som forfatter. Både i disse referatene, men kanskje først og fremst i de meningsladede replikkvekslingene menneskene imellom, dirrer det en helt særegen språklig musikalitet fra en av våre fremste litterære impresjonister.»

 
Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

«En fortelling som når langt inn i hjerterøttene. Varme, sympati og evne til å leve med er kjennetegn for denne romanen som skildrer livet i Oslo rett etter andre verdenskrig.»

 
Emil Otto Syvertsen, Fædrelandsvennen

På sitt beste 06.10.2017

«Forfattaren greier å skape ein nerve i dette heilt vanlege, som gjer at det kjennest som djupt relevant å få vite kva enkefru Vik føler når ho blir invitert på restaurant av ein litt for ivrig enkemann. Slik opnar romanen opp for ei av dei edlaste sidene ved skjønnlitteraturen: nemleg vår evne til å leve oss inn i og føle med andre menneske. Alle har sitt å stri med, ikkje minst Jesper som eg er nokså sikker på å møte att i ei anna bok.

Det har hendt at eg under lesinga av tidlegare romanar av Lars Saabye Christensen har støytt mot ein type maniert og melankolsk tilnærming som trass i all eleganse har vore irriterande. Ikkje så denne gongen. Her er han på sitt beste. Måtte han bli verande her framover.»


«Her er han på sitt beste. Måtte han bli verande her framover.»Marta Norheim, NRK

"Byens spor er på mange måter det leserne vil ha. (...) Kombinert med Lars Saabye Christensens helt særegne grep kan dette bli en gjenganger i «På nattbordet» i lang tid."

Bjørn Gabrielsen, Dagens Næringsliv

"Når ein blir dratt inn i kvardagslivet til personane og fengsla av gleder og sorger og små og store utfordringar, er det godt å vite at dette er første band i ein trilogi. Vi skal tilbake dit om ei stund."

Ingvild Bræin, Dag og Tid

På gjengrodde stier 16.10.2017

«At Saabye Christensen igjen legger en roman hit, gjør at vi føler oss hjemme; som om man hopper inn i fortsettelsen av ett, stort verk. Nå har Saabye Christensen skrevet så mye, og så variert, at det ikke er hele historien om hans forfatterskap. Men når han enda en gang skriver fra dette geografiske området i byen, i det hullet han har boret i så mange ganger, kommer også forventningene om at han virkelig har funnet gull.»

Kristian Hegertun, Vårt Land

Høstsang for Oslo 06.10.2017

«Det er et fint første bind, en roman av den typen som ikke roper høyt, men som bæres av fine personportretter og visdom forkledd som funklende gullkorn, og som igjen befester Lars Saabye Christensens stilling som Oslos fremste heimstaddikter.»

Gerd Elin Stava Sandve, Dagsavisen

«Men det er jo dette han vil vise oss: alle detaljene, blikkene og gestene, alt det sanselige og menneskelige som vi går glipp av i vår tid, med blikket klistret til en Iphone. Jeg tror ikke jeg tar helt feil hvis jeg sier at fansen, den gamle kjernen, kommer til å kose seg glugg med akkurat dette perspektivet.»

Mari Grydeland, Aftenposten

Oslo Vest 05.01.2018

«Her er han virkelig på hjemmebane – så vel tematisk som språklig. Romanen er å regne som en byvandring med høyt litterært og historisk innhold.»

«Det er en friskhet, en frekkhet og en lekenhet hos Saabye Christensen som nesten savner sidestykke i moderne norsk skjønnlitteratur. Han kan til og med få standardfraser og klisjeaktige vendinger til å skinne bare ved å vri litt på ordstillingen eller sette det hele inn i nye sammenhenger.»

Jan-Erik Østlie, FriFagbevegelse.no

"Romanen er full av gode replikkvekslinger. Og språklige formuleringer som få – om noen i Norge – klarer å kopiere. Det er en friskhet, en frekkhet og en lekenhet hos Saabye Christensen som nesten savner sidestykke i moderne norsk skjønnlitteratur."

Jan-Erik Østlie, FriFagbevegelse.no

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Author Lars Saabye Christensen

Lars Saabye Christensen (b. 1953) is one of Norway’s most beloved and prolific authors. Despite being best known for his long novels, Saabye is also a poet. His debut book was the poetry collection History of Gly (1976), for which he was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas prize. His first novel, The Amateur, was published in 1977 and Saabye Christensen often says all his novels could’ve had this title. Humans who struggle with inner insecurities and lack of a directory of their own lives, who are not professionally well-prepared in all of life’s situations, but instead make wrong choices and appear clumsy – these are the people he has an ever-recurring love for in his books.

His big breakthrough novel was Beatles (1984), which is one of the biggest selling literary titles in Norway ever and which new generations of youth keep falling in love with. In 2001 his epic major work The Half Brother was published, an extraordinarily generous and moving novel, which follows a family over a period of many years and through all stages of life. The Half Brother became an international success and won the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Between 2017 and 2021 the series Echoes of the City was published, which was met with exceptional criticism and reached a large readership. Saabye Christensen has written over 70 titles, won numerous prizes and awards, and has been translated into 36 languages.

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