ERNHOLDER

This novel chronicles a year in the life of an 8-year-old boy in Norway in 1940.

Sadi starts his story with a literal bang as a young child in an orphanage in Arendal, Norway, looks up at the stars and instead sees glass fall from the ceiling due to a nearby bomb. The tale then jumps ahead a few years to 1948 and settles into the gentler, more elegiac register that runs through the rest of the book. The child from the opening, Torvald Sarensen, is now 8 years old and preparing for a bonfire to celebrate the first day of spring with his friends Finn Pedersen and Ernhald Harlsen. Even though they are young, the boys savor their memories, such as taking a fire-lit boat ride on the night of the spring equinox. A self-described seasonal novel, the book focuses on the beauty of the land through each season, with lyrical prose that recalls a gentle Hemingway tale or the Bible: “Listening to the love song being played to him on a spring day they had seen pussy willows and crocuses and lilacs and ground flowers growing on the banks of the brook running with spring water that year.” Many sentences begin with “And”: “And they played and tested each other with their marbles until the sun came down on the Arnsfjord sound.” There is some narrative tension woven into the lovely descriptions as Torvald develops on his journey, with the early stirrings of romantic feelings, tested friendships, and the fear that he will become like the local troublemaker, Rolf Ragnar. Some of the most intriguing sections of the novel fill in the details of Rolf's life, the son of a heavy-drinking woodsman who has little interest in his son’s education. Torvald’s growing understanding of Rolf’s situation is touching. While the narrative momentum can occasionally become sluggish, particularly in the Autumn section—with its focus on minor tasks such as deciding to buy chocolate and making plans for the next day—these seem like authentic concerns for a trio of 8-year-olds. The language will grab readers even when the story fumbles.

A lovingly and beautifully written childhood tale.