AshehougAgency

Four Days, Eight Years

On Saturday night 27 February 1972, a newspaper in Kristiansand is blown to pieces. But on Monday morning, the newpaper appears as usual. This dramatic event forms the background of the story in Fire dager, åtte år. In the following days, the whole town is coloured by the hunt for the culprit.

Sigurd, a journalist for the newspaper, tries to get the paper published as usual despite everything having been been destroyed. News of the attack devastates his ex-girlfriend Kristine, who used to work there. Her son, Tor Arne, is a newspaper boy. In unexpected ways, the fire affects all three of them.

Four Days, Eight Years paints an accurate picture of the seventies with its battles over the EC and various political movements. But the story is also about three people struggling to find a foothold in life.

Praise for Four Days, Eight Years:

” Above all Line Baugstø is the confident mistress of the “ less is more” style. She enjoys using short sentences but her writing never becomes staccato. The mundane is imbued with a restrained, poetic undertone. There is neither one word too many, nor one too few”
(Fredrikstads Blad)

”Terrific writing. In this, Line Baugstø’s seventh novel and twelwth book, the author’s depiction of the zeitgeist anno 1972 is spot on … there is something unmistakably genuine about the people and the political constellations in Four Days, Eight Years … Baugstø’s evocative depiction of the tense political debate hits the nail right on the head … Overall, Four Days, Eight Years is a great piece of writing”
(Aftenposten)

”Line Baugstø successfully combines the dramatic with the everyday in this convincing portrayal of the seventies … Baugstø deftly skippers a rather uncomplicated intrigue to shore. Her reliable, simple style of storytelling is punctuated with beautiful, evocative images of the everyday. Despite some rather melodramatic elements, the author’s portrayal of the straighforward seventies has a unique credibility”
(VG)

”Carefully balancing documentary and fiction, Line Baugstø recounts how bombs and the power of journalism to set an agenda affect people’s lives in a small Norwegian town in the seventies. At the moment there are many people wanting to voice their thoughts about freedom of expression in the face of threats and terrorism. One of the few really worth listening to is Line Baugstø, because what she expresses does not concern threats from something huge and alien; she wants to talk about things which can only occur between the occupants of a small town where everyone knows everyone … This book also demonstrates how the crime genre can be employed to make good literature”
(Dagsavisen)

”The book is well proportioned, finely wrought and well written … Line Baugstø once again offers a novel well worth reading”
(Fædrelandsvennen)

”She could not have chosen a better point of departure for this brutal thriller replete with sex, bombs, jealousy and hatred of communists set against a backdrop of stressed, burnt-out newspaper folk. But this is no cloudcuckoo land setting. The author chooses to tell a rather down-to-earth story … A good choice …i gripping reading … As always, Line Baugstø intelligently interprets the everyday and how people’s lives are turned upsidedown when crises strike … her depiction of the way people are struck hits the nail on the head”
(Nordlys)

First published: 2006, Forlaget Oktober
Line Baugstø:    Biography and bibiliography