The Conqueror - Hardcover

Kjaerstad, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1934824038 ISBN 13: 9781934824030

Publisher: Open Letter, 2009

Synopsis

A professor writing the definitive biography of Jonas Wergeland is unable to process the astonishing volume of contradictory information he unearths—until a mysterious woman appears on his doorstep. Possessing innumerable intimate stories about Jonas, the woman details the dark side of his rise to prominence, and through her stories tries to explain what made him a murderer.

About this title

About the Author:

Jan Kjaerstad is the author of the Wergeland Trilogy, a huge international success that led to Kjaerstad receiving the Nordic Prize for Literature in 2001. He also received Germany's Henrik Steffen Prize for Scandinavians who have significantly enriched Europe's artistic and intellectual life.

Barbara Haveland has translated works by several leading Danish and Norwegian authors, including Peter Høeg, Linn Ullmann, and Leif Davidsen.

From Publishers Weekly:

In Kjaerstad's second installment to the Wergeland trilogy (after The Seducer), loosely connected vignettes about troubled Norwegian television director Jonas Wergeland's life reveal large and often unpleasant truths about him. The action stretches over Wergeland's more than 50-odd years, over many countries and through a wide swath of women and a murder. The novel is presented as the work of an academic turned popular author who has been commissioned to write a Wergeland biography. However, the professor has been stymied by a writer's block that is only lifted when a mysterious stranger with insight about Wergeland appears at his doorstep. Despite the collage of stories, the name-dropping of Norwegian artists and the complex system of symbolism that Kjaerstad creates, the narrative (thanks to Haveland's faultless translation) never feels head-scratchingly Norwegian, and Kjaerstad leaves overly obvious signposts to assure there is no ambiguity about his motifs and meanings. Kjaerstad's reminder that the connections between the stories in a life are as important as the stories themselves yields well-knit–together stories, so that a darkly humorous picture of Wergeland's life finally emerges. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Letter
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1934824038
• ISBN 13: 9781934824030
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 481