Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

On Friday the library's morning book group will meet to talk about Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. This Norwegian author was not well known in the U.S. until the New York Times named Out Stealing Horses one of the 10 best books of 2007.

In Out Stealing Horses, Trond Sander leaves Oslo, where he grew up during the Nazi occupation, to retire to a remote part of Norway. He lives in a place like the one he spent the summer when he was 15, and he remembers the events of this summer as he makes preparations for the harsh winter to come. This is only one of the ways in which Trond's past and present seem to mirror each other. It's a very powerful, tightly wound book; the New York Times reviewer marvelled,

"A fairly short novel with a timescape of half a century that seems to have left out nothing important is a bit of a miracle."

Discussion questions for Out Stealing Horses can be found at ReadingGroupGuides.com.

The Washington Post has an interesting interview with Per Petterson about his life, his books and the books he reads.