Set in post-war Oslo and following on from Echoes of a City, by an author who understands the city like no other.
“One of Norway’s finest writers” GUARDIAN
“Profoundly resonant” TLS
In Kirkeveien, Oslo, in the year 1956, forty-year-old Maj is worn down by being a homemaker and widowed mother. To the indignation of the Red Cross ladies, she cautiously frees herself from the role she has otherwise fulfilled to the letter. She finds a job that she turns out to be more than good at, and some kind of love, too. Her friend Margrethe is sick of her marriage to the antiquarian bookseller, Olaf Hall, but cannot think of divorce. Jesper gets a girlfriend who opens the door to a new, more liberated environment of vegetarianism and politics. And his best friend Jostein realises that his talent for making money will allow him access to a world that is larger and richer than that of the Oslo slaughterhouse.
Friendship is a beautifully orchestrated story about people and their dreams, about social conventions, personal constraints and what it takes to have the courage to realise oneself. In this book brimming with human insight, as in Echoes of the City, in each of these characters we recognise something of ourselves.
“One of Norway’s finest writers” GUARDIAN
“Profoundly resonant” TLS
In Kirkeveien, Oslo, in the year 1956, forty-year-old Maj is worn down by being a homemaker and widowed mother. To the indignation of the Red Cross ladies, she cautiously frees herself from the role she has otherwise fulfilled to the letter. She finds a job that she turns out to be more than good at, and some kind of love, too. Her friend Margrethe is sick of her marriage to the antiquarian bookseller, Olaf Hall, but cannot think of divorce. Jesper gets a girlfriend who opens the door to a new, more liberated environment of vegetarianism and politics. And his best friend Jostein realises that his talent for making money will allow him access to a world that is larger and richer than that of the Oslo slaughterhouse.
Friendship is a beautifully orchestrated story about people and their dreams, about social conventions, personal constraints and what it takes to have the courage to realise oneself. In this book brimming with human insight, as in Echoes of the City, in each of these characters we recognise something of ourselves.
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Reviews
Saabye Christensen's writing is rich and elegant, and always easy to read. Burlesque humour that borders on farce, with an underlying layer of melancholy. From the outset, the reader might feel that the book flows a bit too easily, but before you notice the writer has grabbed hold of you and doesn't let go until the last page has been turned
Eminent is a big word. Even so, it comes to mind assessing the second volume of this memoir novel, Echoes of the City . . . Lars Saabye Christensen is a master storyteller who is both sharp and affectionate.
I just have to repeat how impressed I am with Lars Saabye Christensen. It's like he's just sitting there, almost improvising on his keyboard and suddenly he's composed yet another masterpiece
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