Echoland

Echoland is Per Petterson’s first novel. Arvid, who we know from the collection of short stories Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, is now twelve years old, and he is spending the summer with his grandparents in Denmark. Mum, dad, Gry and Arvid spend a few weeks living in the tiny flat above grandma’s milk shop in a town in the north of Jylland. It is the early sixties, the milk comes in bottles, and every morning Arvid helps his granddad distribute it on a bicycle. Arvid is a kid who lets the world worry him, and there is so much that he wonders about. How come grandma often cries behind the closed doors to her small chamber? What happened between mum and dad before he and Gry were born? And why does Arvid, more than anyone else in the family, need to think about Bruno Angelini, the baker’s son from Naples who is one of his ancestors?

Praise for Echoland:

”Per Petterson catches burgeoning puberty in full in ECHOLAND. Few writers have his ability to portray so tenderly and without illusions how perfect and frail, strong and delicate, angry and sad this condition is.”
(Weekendavisen, Denmark)

”Long before Per Petterson’s international success Out Stealing Horses, he had created his very own universe and set the tone. It is evident in the novel Echoland, which is a small gem about a boy’s life’s sensation of heaven and sea, body and power and a family’s unspoken tensions ... The experience of being a boy … is remarkably well understood and portrayed. This is quite simply a true depiction, you feel while reading.”
(Politiken, Denmark)

”About a month ago, his first book Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes from 1987 was published, and already today Echoland from 1989 is released. With the translation of these books, Batzer & Co. has created a beautiful circle around this small, but in an artistic sense great Norwegian body of work ... This is a literary work of art of the most vivid kind.”
(Kristeligt Dagblad, Denmark)

”Both novels [ Echoland and Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes] are small gems, that nuanced and nicely capture a boy’s life ... when you yourself have experienced the joy [of reading the book], your only wish will be to pass it on to others: A day in the sun with little Arvid."
(Berlingske Tidende, Denmark)

”Strong and beautiful about powerless dreams”
( Information, Denmark)

“ASHES IN MY MOUTH, SAND IN MY SHOES and ECHOLAND are books that avoid all unnecessary ornaments. As in Hemingway’s writing, the principle is to show in order to tell. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a powerful current of unspoken feelings and stories below the surface, only that these to a large extent must be spotted between the lines … These two books show that Petterson is much more than his successful novel OUT STEALING HORSES. From the very beginning the author was writing with spark and passion.”
(Sentura, Denmark)

“Let this be said right away: This is great writing.”
(Fædrelandsvennen)

“His language is dense, intense and vivid, and the conflicts he describes, in his masculine, rough and bashful manner, are dramatic and complicated.”
(Nationen)

“Both in style and in intimacy with his characters, he is unique. Petterson has brought literature about children a big step forward.”
(Klassekampen)

“A genuine, finely crafted piece of prose.”
(Dagbladet)

First published: 1989, Forlaget Oktober
Per Petterson: Biography and bibliography

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