Extremely tense and extremely interesting

”The pine needles stretch their tongues and sing an unfamiliar nocturnal song. Each tongue is so small that it cannot be heard; together the sound is so deep and powerful that it could level the hills if it wished.”

A riveting short story read that manages to do in novelette form what other books struggle to do in 400 pages.

Capturing the beauty of the winter days in Norway and the unapologetic nature of children growing up in the harsh reality of being surrounded by snow and ice in the harshest of climates, Tarjei Vesaas presents a story between two girls.

Unn moves into Siss’s neighborhood to live with her only family left, her aunt, after losing her mother. As Siss and Unn strike up a slow friendship, Unn disappears into the empty vastness of snows and glaciers surrounding their rural town.

The book focuses on the psychological impact of the situation both from Siss’ and Unn’ point of view, and does a great job at taking you back to the childhood years of where nothing and at the same time everything made sense, a way of thinking that we tend to forget as we cross the path into adulthood.

Tarjei Vesaas has a great knack for transporting you back to the mindset of an 11 year old and keeps you there firmly until the story ends.

Needless to say, this book is best read during cold climates, although as beautiful as the descriptions were, they were also quite haunting, almost encouraging you to go and seek out the snow and ice formations that develop during the cold winter months, despite the danger that they may represent.

I heard that this book is considered Norwegian classic literature, and if this is what I’ve been missing by not reading enough Norwegian authors I’ll sure be looking into more novels written by these wonderfully talented authors with such strong literary voices.

”It was an enchanted palace. She must try to find a way in ! It was bound to be full of curious passages and doorways -- and she must get in. It looked so extraordinary that Unn forgot everything else as she stood in front of it. She was aware of nothing else as she stood in front of it. She was aware of nothing but her desire to enter.”

read at Agios Athanasios

Promised you a miracle

This is a slim volume. It's dark and beautiful and hauntingly sad. It's about the huge emotions of friendships in ones teens and how difficult it is to put into words what they mean to us. It's bound about by the beautiful, brutal Norwegian landscape which dominates so much of the book. Breath taking in lots of ways.