Speed reading - 3 novellas in translation
In
Gøhril Gabrielsen’s taut psychological thriller, Ankomst (Peirene Press), a
nameless research scientist is measuring the impact of climatic changes on
seabird populations. As she waits for her lover to join her on a frozen
peninsular in northern Norway, isolation begins to take its toll. In her
self-imposed exile, memories and imagination collide with increasing
regularity. We learn of the circumstances that have led her to leave behind her
young daughter and the trauma, that has shaped her recent decisions.
Set in Austria at the end of the Second World War, Paulus Hochgatterer’s bittersweet The Day My Grandfather was a Hero (MacLehose Press) is about a farming family whose son is at the front. They take in Nelli, an orphaned victim of a recent bombing and, later, a starving young man. Mikhail, a Russian POW on the run, carries a rolled-up painter’s canvas which he guards closely. The family’s routine is disrupted further with the arrival of a group of German soldiers who threaten t…
Set in Austria at the end of the Second World War, Paulus Hochgatterer’s bittersweet The Day My Grandfather was a Hero (MacLehose Press) is about a farming family whose son is at the front. They take in Nelli, an orphaned victim of a recent bombing and, later, a starving young man. Mikhail, a Russian POW on the run, carries a rolled-up painter’s canvas which he guards closely. The family’s routine is disrupted further with the arrival of a group of German soldiers who threaten t…