Nordic Council Literature Prize
The Half Brother: A Novel
A sweeping family novel in which love, secrets, and trauma accumulate across generations, linking a son's coming of age to postwar social change and family reconciliation.
Work Information
A sweeping family novel in which love, secrets, and trauma accumulate across generations, linking a son's coming of age to postwar social change and family reconciliation.
A sweeping family novel in which love, secrets, and trauma accumulate across generations, linking a son's coming of age to postwar social change and family reconciliation.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Arcade Publishing
- Published
- 2004-05-17
- Pages
- 696 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 16.51 x 4.45 x 24.13 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781559707152
- ISBN-10
- 1559707151
- Price
- 10102 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Contemporary
Traces four generations of a family marked by the untimely birth of Fred, a misfit and boxer conceived during a devastating rape who forges an unusual friendship with his younger half-brother, Barnum. Winner of the Nordic Prize for Literature. 30,000 first printing.
Reviews
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I have yet to read this tome (682 pages!). However, having seen the brilliant television mini-series several times (it's addictive), I know of whence I write. The story and the characters are equally engrossing. The film has a documentary feel about it, as if these characters really lived. Perhaps they did? If you like surprise endings, this is one of the best I have ever seen... totally unexpected. I doubt even Agatha Christie could have dreamt it up, or see it coming. It is clear why the vivid imagination of Lars Saabye Christensen makes him on of Norway's most popular, award-winning authors. The mini-series was filmed in Norway, with a superb cast that has no "weakest link". You will believe, and fall in love with, this family.
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The book is long yes. And the narration is too extended. I’m more classic literature connoisseur but came across the review for this book and decided to purchase. Not that I disappointed but I don’t really understand all the hype about this book. It’s quite depressing, there are lots of disappointments and there is no light in the end of the tunnel. Anyway I’ll finish reading it, but will not reread it that’s for sure
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The customer reviews here are for a different book - one by Kenneth Opell. "Half Brother" This book is by Lars Saabye Christensen. "The Half Brother" The star rating is not for the book but for the Amazon information.
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I loved this novel. I was so sad when it was over. The characters came alive for me. Story is unexpected. Enjoyed reading about a culture I haven't had much exposure to. Highly recommend it.
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Well written and an enjoyable read. I am sure that I have not yet gotten the author's message, if there is one, beyond life in a family. It is interesting to note that one of the narrator's complaints as an author is the liberties film makers take with a story when adapting the story to film, yet the movie of the book makes a number of significant changes, not the least of which is the ending.