AshehougAgency

What Lives

We meet politician Egil Retten and his daughter Maja, an animal rights and environmental activist. Preparing the opening of a local water power plant, Egil is criticized and confronted by Maja, who believes the animals in the area will suffer as a result. Finally, they cease to communicate at all.

In WHAT LIVES Erland Kiøsterud puts insolvable conflicts up against each other, leading his tale towards an inevitable dark ending. At the same time he asks the question: what lives? In his novel, he explores the question from different angles, twisting and turning it over, showing that life can be sensed and chosen where ever you are.

WHAT LIVES is the third book in a loosely-knitted trilogy about modern Norway. The first two novels are The First Work (2005) and At the Mouth of the River (2008).

Praise for What Lives:

”With his third and final novel in his trilogy, Kiøsterud thought-provokingly portrays human dilemmas, freedom and longing, interpersonal relationships exposed to stress. These are peaks in his exquisite literary work"
(Aftenposten)

”This isn't a novel you read and forget the moment you close it. It stands out from the crowd by turning questions about the environmental administration into an interpersonal matter."
(Drammens Tidende)

"[Kiøsterud] writes well, using a metaphoric and associative bokmål language. (...) The literary artisan has done his job well (...) A novel which makes you wiser"
(Fædrelandsvennen)

”Dense and well tuned about the lack of communication (...) [The novel] moves you because Kiøsterud, in his customary precise prose, manages to show two people's helplessness."
(Dagbladet)

"incredibly beautiful despriptions of forest and nature (...) a work that arrives at the right time. And it does something to the reader"
(Dagsavisen)

First published: 2009, Oktober
Erland Kiøsterud: Biography and bibliography