Published by Scribner / Fourth Estate, 2014, 531 pages.Review by Thomas Peak and Susanne Gjønnes Set during the darkness of World War II, All the Light We Cannot See is a powerful and emotional novel. It follows a young boy and a girl caught up on each side of the whirlwind of Nazism and war. …
Author: susannegjonnes
Catching Thunder—The True Story of the World’s Longest Sea Chase: Eskil Engdal and Kjetil Sæter
Translated from Norwegian by Diane Oatley.Published by Zed Books, 2018, 400 pages.Review by Susanne Karine Gjønnes This true-life crime novel, Catching Thunder: The Story of the World’s Longest Sea Chase, is the dramatic account of Sea Shepherd’s 110-day long international pursuit of the pirate fishing vessel Thunder. Sea Shepherd is a group of activists committed …
Italian Shoes: Henning Mankell
Translated from Swedish by Laurie ThompsonPublished by Vintage, 2009, 247 pages. Original version published in 2006.Review by Susanne Karine Gjønnes We find an aging man, living by himself on a Swedish island, where he has been in solitude since his retirement 12 years back. Once, he made a mistake he regrets so badly he has …
Beyond Our Means—Why America Spends While the World Saves: Sheldon Garon
Published by Princeton University Press, 2011, 488 pages.Review by Susanne Karine Gjønnes The key question Sheldon Garon, Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton, tries to answer is why are some countries thriftier than others, and in particular, why is the US saving so little? Through a comparative historical analysis, Garon tracks thriftiness …
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Mengele Zoo: Gert Nygårdshaug
1989, 454 pages. Widely regarded to be the best Norwegian book ever written, and recipient of numerous literary awards, it is strange that Mengele Zoo has yet to be published in English. It is the first in a trilogy that continues with Himmelblomsttreets muligheter (The Sky Flower Tree’s Opportunities, 1995) and Afrodites basseng (Aphrodite’s Pool, …
Dear Life: Alice Munro
Published by Douglas Gibbons Books / Vintage, 2012, 336 pages. Review by Thomas Peak and Susanne Gjonnes Why do we read? To think, to experience and most of all to feel. Perhaps. Munroe’s final collection of short stories Dear Life achieves all of this in abundance. With characteristic subtleness, a refined and homely style, the …
The Bad Girl (Travesuras de la niña mala): Mario Vargas Llosa
Translated from Spanish by Edith GrossmanPublished by Farrar Straus & Giroux / Faber & Faber, 2007, 376 pages. Original version published in 2006. Review by Susanne Karine Gjonnes Do you believe in endless, unconditional love? The answer to this question is likely to shape one’s opinion of The Bad Girl. Mario Vargas Llosa is a …
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