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OUT STEALING HORSES

by Per Petterson & translated by Anne Born ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2007

Haunting, minimalist prose and expert pacing give this quiet story from Norway native Petterson (In the Wake, 2006, etc.) an...

An aging loner remembers a childhood summer that marked a lifetime of loss.

Fifteen-year-old Trond, spending the summer of 1948 with his father, away from their Oslo home in a cabin in the easternmost region of Norway, wakes to an invitation from his friend, Jon, to “steal” their neighbor’s horses for an early-morning joy ride. But what Trond doesn’t yet know is that the ride is Jon’s farewell to him. The day before, when Jon was supposed to be minding his young twin brothers, Lars and Odd, Lars found Jon’s prized gun and, imitating his older brother, accidentally killed his twin. Nearly 60 years later, Trond has returned to the rustic region after a devastating car accident that killed his wife and left him gravely injured, hoping to live out the rest of his days quietly, with his dog as his only companion. But late one night, he has a chance encounter with his only neighbor, an aging man named Lars. Trond realizes that this neighbor is his childhood friend’s younger brother, and their meeting causes him to remember not only the morning of the horse theft, but the rest of the summer as well. After Jon’s disappearance, Trond spends the summer working with his father to send lumber down the river to the Swedish border, ostensibly the reason for their retreat. He is stunned to learn that his father is having an affair with Jon’s grieving mother, also the object of Trond’s own first intimate moment. As Trond begins to talk to the other workers, he also realizes that his father has had complicated reasons for spending much of the war years in the eastern region of the country, close to Sweden’s neutral borders. He even learns that the phrase “out stealing horses,” which he had tossed around casually with his friend, has a meaning that reaches beyond their childhood pranks.

Pub Date: June 1, 2007

ISBN: 1-55597-470-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Graywolf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007

LITERARY FICTION

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BOOK REVIEW

by Per Petterson ; translated by Ingvild Burkey

by Per Petterson ; translated by Don Bartlett

THINGS FALL APART

by Chinua Achebe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 23, 1958

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.

Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger .

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958

ISBN: 0385474547

Page Count: 207

Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky

Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958

More by Chinua Achebe

by Chinua Achebe

THE SECRET HISTORY

by Donna Tartt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 1992

The Brat Pack meets The Bacchae in this precious, way-too-long, and utterly unsuspenseful town-and-gown murder tale. A bunch of ever-so-mandarin college kids in a small Vermont school are the eager epigones of an aloof classics professor, and in their exclusivity and snobbishness and eagerness to please their teacher, they are moved to try to enact Dionysian frenzies in the woods. During the only one that actually comes off, a local farmer happens upon them—and they kill him. But the death isn't ruled a murder—and might never have been if one of the gang—a cadging sybarite named Bunny Corcoran—hadn't shown signs of cracking under the secret's weight. And so he too is dispatched. The narrator, a blank-slate Californian named Richard Pepen chronicles the coverup. But if you're thinking remorse-drama, conscience masque, or even semi-trashy who'll-break-first? page-turner, forget it: This is a straight gee-whiz, first-to-have-ever-noticed college novel—"Hampden College, as a body, was always strangely prone to hysteria. Whether from isolation, malice, or simple boredom, people there were far more credulous and excitable than educated people are generally thought to be, and this hermetic, overheated atmosphere made it a thriving black petri dish of melodrama and distortion." First-novelist Tartt goes muzzy when she has to describe human confrontations (the murder, or sex, or even the ping-ponging of fear), and is much more comfortable in transcribing aimless dorm-room paranoia or the TV shows that the malefactors anesthetize themselves with as fate ticks down. By telegraphing the murders, Tartt wants us to be continually horrified at these kids—while inviting us to semi-enjoy their manneristic fetishes and refined tastes. This ersatz-Fitzgerald mix of moralizing and mirror-looking (Jay McInerney shook and poured the shaker first) is very 80's—and in Tartt's strenuous version already seems dated, formulaic. Les Nerds du Mal—and about as deep (if not nearly as involving) as a TV movie.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1992

ISBN: 1400031702

Page Count: 592

Publisher: Knopf

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992

More by Donna Tartt

by Donna Tartt

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Book Reviews

'out stealing horses' beats fiction heavyweights.

Alan Cheuse

Norwegian writer Per Petterson won the coveted IMPAC Dublin prize for fiction this year, against such competition as Cormac McCarthy and Salman Rushdie. The novel that garnered him the prize is called Out Stealing Horses . It has now been published in the United States, in a translation by Anne Born.

Copyright © 2007 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Book Review: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

If there was any doubt I am enthralled with foreign fiction, it is totally erased. The first four books I’ve read this year are translated works. There’s not a single weak one among them and Out Stealing Horses is among the strongest. It is yet one more reason why I need to quit limiting my books of the year to books published the year I read them.

Comparison is always dangerous but Norwegian novelist Per Petterson’s approach and story kept bringing to mind both Philip Roth’s Everyman and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead , two of my favorite books of the last several years. (If you’re not familiar with either of those works, do yourself a favor and read them.) True, throwing an author in with Robinson and Roth is high praise. Petterson deserves it.

First published in the U.S. in 2007 by a small, St. Paul-based publishing house , Out Stealing Horses won the 2003 Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Award. Its narrator, Trond Sander, has retired to a small cabin in rural Norway. While Trond intends to live the remainder of his life there alone, at an unhurried pace and in peace, he can’t help but contemplate his life so far. In particular, he thinks of the summer of 1948, which he spent with his father in a similar cabin near the Swedish border. That summer forever affected his life and that of his family and a neighboring family.

Translated by Anne Born, the book moves almost flawlessly between the present and 1948. Petterson’s sentence structure, frequently run ons, makes us feel as if we are listening in on Sander’s inner conversations, whether his present-day thought process or the flow of memory. In addition to slowly unfolding the tale as Robinson does in Gilead , the book also shares with that work and Everyman the core theme of exploring how we’ve lived our lives and certain events, including the seemingly routine, brought us to where we are today. You can’t help but think that in many of his ideas and feelings Trond, too, is an everyman, even if those ideas have never quite taken full shape in our own mind. It also looks at the public persona and the private person.

People like it when you tell them things, in suitable proportions, in a modest, intimate tone, and they think they know you, but they do not, they know about you, for what they are let in on are facts, not feelings, not what your opinion is about anything at all, not how what has happened to you and how all the decisions you have made have turned you into who you are. What they do is they fill in with their own feelings and opinions and assumptions, and they compose a new life which has precious little to do with yours, and that lets you off the hook. No-one can touch you unless you yourself want them to.

The events of 1948 are big and small. Most of Trond’s current life borders on or is mundane. But that is part of everyone’s story, how both personally momentous events and seemingly insignificant decisions put us on the path of our lives and off other paths that would have kept us from being where and who we are today. As such, perhaps I shouldn’t label this foreign fiction. Like much excellent writing, this is universal fiction.

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses

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Out Stealing Horses

Per Petterson, Anne Born | 3.96 | 28,086 ratings and reviews

Ranked #79 in Dublin

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Out Stealing Horses from the world's leading experts.

Carl Bass CEO/Autodesk Apparently Bass likes novels in which the narrator recounts events that took place in the distant past. Like "Ordinary Grace," "Out Stealing Horses" is a novel that opens with the main character, now an old man, recalling a fateful summer from his youth. The novel winds through the German occupation of Norway in World War II, the accidental shooting death of a twin, a son's relationship with his father, and the intertwined history of two friends and families over the span of half a century. (Source)

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• Apr 17, 2007, 288 pages
• Apr 2008, 256 pages

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‘Out Stealing Horses’ Review: Old Man, Take a Look at Your Life

But the protagonist of this film, based on a Norwegian novel, would prefer to forget the past.

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By Glenn Kenny

Adapted from the highly acclaimed 2003 novel by Per Petterson, “Out Stealing Horses,” written and directed by Hans Petter Moland, is an ambitious film that examines memory and consciousness through the perspective of an older man who’s determined to escape from memory and to constrict his lived experience.

Stellan Skarsgard plays Trond, a Swede who has moved to a remote section of Norway after his wife of 38 years died in an auto accident. “All my life I have longed to be alone in a place like this,” he says in voice-over, before announcing that he intends to spend the coming evening “fittingly drunk.”

Out walking on a snowy night, Trond encounters another man, albeit a slightly younger one, walking his dog. They fall into conversation. Trond recognizes the man, named Lars (Bjorn Floberg): as a small child, he was Trond’s neighbor in a rural area where, as a teen, Trond spent time with his father. And so Trond’s boat is borne back into the current of the past.

Via flashbacks, the narrative bounces about significant points of the 1940s, including the Nazi occupation of Norway. Characters experience traumas war-related and family-related.

The title refers to a literal activity young Trond (Jon Ranes) engaged in with his close friend and Lar’s older brother, Jon (Sjur Vatne Brean), while roaming farm and forest. But it also refers to general troublemaking, sometimes in opposition to Germans.

The high-toned beauty of the cinematography, by Thomas Hardmeier and Rasmus Videbaek, imposes a stateliness on this serious-minded movie that sometimes puts it at odds with the galvanic events it depicts. As is not unusual in contemporary art cinema, this quality blunts emotional impact. But the overall integrity of the effort is impressive.

Out Stealing Horses Not rated. In Norwegian and Swedish, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

OUT STEALING HORSES: A Poetic & Softly Distressing Exploration Of Memory

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As we all know, our existence comes with innate hurdles. Our memories fade due to age or repression. Our philosophies and beliefs are challenged by unexpected tragedies and occurrences. And our relationships with our parents, siblings, and friends are constantly adapting or corroding due to the cruel essence of time or proximity. And the frightful fact remains that it only takes one dire incident to alter the trajectory of our lives. Out Stealing Horses , a graceful drama of memory and loss, strives to underscore the aforementioned mental processes with visual splendor and quietly powerful performances.

It was only last year when director Hans Petter Moland  remade his own Norwegian thriller  In Order of Disappearance and rebranded it as Cold Pursuit . By replacing Stellan Skarsgard with  Liam Neeson , universal appeal proliferated. Despite retaining creative control, the American remake was an unsurprisingly dull and stiff reinterpretation. At first glance, it would appear that Moland  is deserting the artsy Norwegian roots behind for commercial success, but he proves artsy folk wrong with his latest cinematic offering, Out Stealing Horses .

Based on Per Petterson’s Norwegian bestseller  Out Stealing Horses , Hans Petter Moland’s  weaves together a visually rich adaptation of the renowned novel. Transitioning back and forth a timeline spanning decades, Out Stealing Horses is a vast story of trauma and memory seen through the eyes of Trond, both as a wide-eyed 15-year-old teenager ( Jon Ranes ), and a disheartened 67-year-old man ( Stellan Skarsgard ) living a quiet existence in the Norwegian countryside.

A Tragic Summer & A Sober Winter

In November 1999, Trond moved back to Norway after spending 42 years in Sweden. Trond, a dejected 67-year-old man, now lives in seclusion, geographically and emotionally. Trond now occupies a comfy, poky cottage in a serene Norwegian village. While distracted on the road, Trond almost drives into an oncoming truck and crashes into a snowbank. At this exact moment, a devastating flashback plagued Trond’s mind and affected his cognizance. The flashback reveals that Trond’s wife died from a car accident, and Trond was in the driver’s seat. But, under the guise of determinism, Trond makes a bold statement reassuring himself that he doesn’t submit to guilt: “I don’t feel guilt. Only loss.”

In the year 1948, Trond is a 15-year-old teenager and elated to be spending the summer with his father ( Tobias Santelmann ) cutting down trees and sending them up the river to Sweden to be sold. Looking back with unavoidable subjectivity, the far-reaching woodlands remain untouched by WWII. Stunning shots of glistening trees, gentle streams, hopping rabbits, idle owls, and majestic horses provide a vivid, sensorial, and naturalistic setting that exudes nothing but beauty and repose. Woefully, the surrounding nature is matched by familial tragedy.

One day, Trond is out “stealing” horses with his friend Jon ( Sjur Vatne Brean ), but something dark and unsettling is eating Jon up from the inside. What Trond learns from his father is that the day before, Jon was supposed to be supervising his young twin brothers, but he lost sight of them and thought they’ve wandered outside. A baneful accident involving Jon’s loaded hunting rifle and Jon’s little brother, Lars, leaves the other twin brother dead — and amongst the chaos and grief, Jon blames himself and wallows in guilt.

Trond and Lars are compelled to face a new and murkier reality. Lars must live with the fact that he unintentionally shot his brother, while Jon naturally feels responsible. Even though Trond didn’t lose a sibling to such a barbaric accident, the young child’s death pushes him to contemplate life, and how fugacious and heartless life can be to the purest of souls. Sooner rather than later, Trond abandons his bubble of childhood innocence, and ventures forward into a seemingly comfortless world of aimless tragedy and agony quicker than usual.

Back in 1999, Trond has his suspicions about Lars, the neighbor who told him a sickly tale about shooting a dog as a child. Could this be the same Lars who accidentally shot and killed his twin brother? There’s clearly a seed of mystery planted here, but Moland isn’t trying to enhance the mystery with pseudo-inklings of peril. The mystery modestly boils over, leaving few surprises to chew on but more to consider when it comes to Trond and Lars’ shared distress.

Spanning Decades,  Out Stealing Horses Maintains A Smooth Trajectory

The film adheres to a flashback narrative structure. At the risk of being scattered, Out Stealing Horses  collates the past and present together with fluidity. The younger versions of Trond and Lars, who are captured in bright and creamy flashbacks that are deftly edited by Jens Christian Fodstad and Nicolaj Monberg , are clearly more innocent and reactive, whereas present-day Trond and Lars are emotionally hardened, thus making it difficult to remain invested in them. Even so, Trond and Lars’ character development is splendidly raw, if somewhat partial given the plot is made up of a lot of Trond’s and Lars’ memories.

Whilst Trond’s memory can likely be construed as untrustworthy and embroidered, the relationship between young Trond and his father is lyrically expressed. Tobias Santelmann  is a subtly brooding presence with a heavy heart. Despite being frequently hard on Trond, there are moments in which they both react in joy as rain pours down from the sky, and at another point, they set out on a horse-riding excursion to Sweden to watch as their logs of woods are mildly going downstream.

Jon Ranes  is equally as impressive as Santelmann , conveying Trond’s clashing feelings of glee, confusion, and rancor through taut body language. Stellan Skarsgard , once again helming a Hans Petter Moland picture, delivers another pleasantly withdrawn performance as 67-year-old Trond, taking on a role that entails demanding rigor and inscrutability, with only micro-expressions alluding to Trond’s internal feelings of regret and yearning. Trond’s not the most inherently intriguing narrator, as he assumes a sluggish monotone and demeanor, but you can’t help but wonder why Trond chooses to live in an isolated state. What is Trond holding onto? What, or who can’t he let go of? The summer of 1948 was the summer when Trond bought into adulthood, but at what cost?

Out Stealing Horses  Is A Lyrical, Earnest, And Heartbreaking Trek Down Memory Lane

Overflowing with internal and external conflict (a family tragedy, a wobbly father-son relationship, an illicit sensual desire, grief, and loss), Hans Petter Moland’s Out Stealing Horses  is a gently-paced, exceptionally-written, sensory experience. Coupled with Kaspar Kaae’s softly moving score and Rasmus Videbæk’s gorgeous cinematography (which combines attentive close-ups and versatile wide shots), Out Stealing Horses  is an arresting expedition.

It is true that Out Stealing Horses doesn’t spend enough time in the present-day to render a stirring portrait of Trond’s modern (and forlorn) existence. That being said, the summer of 1948 proves to be a summer Trond, Lars, and I myself won’t soon forget.

Have you seen  Out Stealing Horses ? If not, are you interested in seeing it now? Let us know in the comments!

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Out Stealing Horses Hardcover – April 17, 2007

We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and oneof the first days of July. Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day―an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.

• Print length 250 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Graywolf Press
• Publication date April 17, 2007
• Dimensions 6.02 x 0.97 x 8.39 inches
• ISBN-10 9781555974701
• ISBN-13 978-1555974701
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

From publishers weekly, from bookmarks magazine, from booklist.

“Petterson's spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force.” ― The New Yorker “A gripping account of such originality as to expand the reader's own experience of life.” ― The New York Times Book Review “ Out Stealing Horses looks like a charming but modest chamber-piece. In retrospect--and this is a novel that strikes deep and lingers long--it feels more like some shattering literary symphony.” ― The Independent “A . . . miracle of a book.” ― The Irish Times

About the Author

Product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1555974708
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Graywolf Press; First Edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 250 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781555974701
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1555974701
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.9 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.97 x 8.39 inches
• #3,938 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
• #4,147 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
• #21,286 in Literary Fiction (Books)

About the author

Per petterson.

PER PETTERSON won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for the novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been translated into more than thirty languages and was named a Best Book of 2007 by The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Before publishing his first book, Petterson worked as a bookseller in Norway.

Customer reviews

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Customers say

Customers find the storyline appealing and oddly moving. They also appreciate the depth of emotion, enlightenment, and chilling truth. Readers describe the writing style as thoughtful, introspective, and crystal clear. They find the characters well developed and the book easy to sink into. However, some find the content boring.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book well-written, leisurely, and thoughtful. They also say the book is a quick read that captures Hemingway's rhythm almost perfectly. Customers also mention that the book has descriptions of forests and rivers that are easy to sink into.

"...end it's not the story that hold the reader's attention but the quality of the prose ...." Read more

"...The language is simple. The book is detailed and poetic in its choice of imagery and sound...." Read more

"...the translator or Per Petterson, but one of them captured Hemingway's rhythm almost perfectly ...." Read more

"...The book is beautifully written . The descriptions of the Norwegian rural wilderness are vivid and yet not overdone or over emphasized...." Read more

Customers find the storyline appealing to readers with enough experience. They also describe the book as unusual, oddly constructed, and unforgettable.

"Per Petterson is a subtle and sensitive storyteller ...." Read more

"...astute; and, although almost meditative in nature, there is plenty of plot and action -- including the "stealing horses" of the title, a tragic..." Read more

"...Spare, deliberate, haunting prose moves this story along quietly with a sense of this man seeking a sense of peace with this past, to accept the..." Read more

"...This is a very quiet and softly told tale of Trond Sander who now lives in eastern Norway in a small house alone, as he wants to live...." Read more

Customers find the writing style thoughtful, introspective, and effective. They also say it's unpretentious, gorgeous, and lyrical. Readers also love the atmosphere and find the story original and yet recognizable. They describe it as an important work of literature and appreciate the simple and spare prose.

"...The book does what good literature should do: It illuminates the complexity of human behavior and thereby illustrates the time honored verities...." Read more

"...And it is all done in this Scandinavian-minimalist style , lean and functional...." Read more

"...The book is beautifully written. The descriptions of the Norwegian rural wilderness are vivid and yet not overdone or over emphasized...." Read more

"...The novel is a marvel of mood and ambiance ; it is psychologically astute; and, although almost meditative in nature, there is plenty of plot and..." Read more

Customers find the book has an intimate expression of father and son, a depth of emotion rarely seen, and an unforgettable characterization. They also describe the writing as exquisite, spare, and full of truth. Readers also mention that the book makes them weep.

"...The novel is a marvel of mood and ambiance; it is psychologically astute ; and, although almost meditative in nature, there is plenty of plot and..." Read more

"...His leisurely moving stream of consciousness style made for a very intimate portrayal of a man trying to come to terms with his past, as we try to..." Read more

"...In short--an unforgettable characterization ." Read more

"In the way of much northern literature, this novel looks deeply inside human beings ...." Read more

Customers find the characters in the book well developed.

"...Trond and Lars are very likeable characters to me and I enjoyed the book so much that I've ordered Per Petterson's book To Siberia...." Read more

"...The authentic period details and finely honed characters also bring to mind another favorite author, Molly Gloss...." Read more

"...Trond is a memorable, relatable character who in his youth experiences changes that cast a long shadow far into his adulthood...." Read more

"This story started with a wonderful setting and character whom you begin from the begin to like...." Read more

Customers find the book moving and insightful.

"...It is a moving , subtle tribute to one man's efforts to come to terms with truths that eluded him for fifty years...." Read more

"Well written, keeps the reader engrossed ...." Read more

"I loved reading this story. The writing was wonderful-- continuous flow of thought . But I didn't love the story and was disappointed when I finished." Read more

"... Moving and descriptive it is a reminder of a boys life in a period of uncertain times." Read more

Customers find the book complex, psychological, and well done. They also appreciate the alternating-chapters structure and the flashback.

"...from one period to another is not always well done, though the basic concept is good (that's also what I tried to do in my book), and the boy's eye-..." Read more

"...The second read was even more exhilarating . A complex , beautiful written story about coming of age , young and old." Read more

"...; What appealed to me most about this book was its alternating-chapters structure : one from a "flashback" adult perspective, another from an..." Read more

Customers find the content boring, with no point. They also say the book lacks joy and interest in friends.

"...Nothing special, no one special and frankly boring for the most part ...." Read more

"...He just lives a day today existence..... not much joy in his life and no interest in friends or family. Hope I don't end up like him. Too depressing." Read more

"...thing, or a translation issue, this was a story that seemed to me to have no point . I kept waiting for that AHA moment, but didn't get it...." Read more

"...It's a fine journal, however, it's a terrible novel ." Read more

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