AshehougAgency

Coke Dust and Magic Mirror Sliver

In this book Kim Småge has deserted crime for more peaceful pastures. Koksbiter og trollsplint is a sympathetic portrayal of what it was like to grow up in a medium-sized Norwegian town shortly after the war. The story is set in a drab block of flats peopled by twelve mothers and assorted children. Their nearest neighbour is a smelting plant, which, when the wind is in the wrong quarter, deposits smuts and particles of coke all over the women's clean washing. The vagaries and vicissitudes of daily life are viewed through the eyes of a little girl named Lydia.

The author has created a period piece composed of intimate and lively sense perceptions interspersed with intriguing glimpses into the serious and threatening world of adulthood and sprinkled, not least, with warmth and humour.

"A charming childhood portrayal from postwar Norway. You sense a new dimension in Småge’s authorship" (Dagbladet)

First published: 1999, Aschehoug Fiction

Kim Småge: Biography and bibliography