The River

Aksel Vinding is struggling to accept the loss of his true love, Anja Skoog. After her death he is unsure if his career as a pianist, which he has put his life into is really the right choice. In this situation he commences a relationship with Anja Skoog's mother Marianne, without knowing if it is really the dead daughter he can not let go.
The River is the sequel to To Music. It is a love story about a young man's connections to – and fascination for – a woman who is many years his older, and at the same time a novel about the choice of paths in life and moral dilemmas. It is a story about the importance of art in humans, the struggle to be seen, in one's own life and in others. A novel about passion and grief.

The first novel about Aksel Vinding – To Music - has been translated to several languages and received with high appraisal, especially in Denmark, Germany and France.

Praise for The River:

“a worthy follow-up [...] Like To Music, The River is great literature – heavy and uplifting at the same time.”
(Politiken, Denmark)

“Being a musician, Ketil Bjørnstad builds up the story very elegantly, replaying the same themes again and again in new ways [...] once again [the reader] is seduced by Ketil Bjørnstad’s musical and atmospheric language.”
(Jyllands-Posten, Denmark)

“Dramatic waves crash in over the minds in Ketil Bjørnstad’s captivating and psychologically penetrating novel The River."
(Berlingske Tidende, Denmark)

“A thoughtful, dramatic novel about music as part of life, art as a demand and grief as a force. Of fiery passion, hidden truths, and gnawing expectations”
(Aftenposten, Norway)

Click here to read Unni Lindells Review of Elven

First published: 2008, Aschehoug Fiction
Ketil Bjørnstad: Biography and bibliography

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