The Hills Reply - Softcover

Vesaas, Tarjei

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1939810388 ISBN 13: 9781939810380

Publisher: Archipelago, 2019

Synopsis

An intensely graceful novel recounting scenes of the Norwegian countryside from one of Norway's most beloved 20th-century writers.

Tarjei Vesaas's final work before his death, this episodic novel drifts between dream-like abstraction and vivid description of seemingly ordinary yet heightened scenes of the Norwegian countryside. The many overlapping, semi-autobiographical vignettes of The Hills Reply relate a deep appreciation for the complexity of the human condition, nature, and relationships.

About this title

About the Author:

Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970) novelist, poet, and playwright, is widely regarded as one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century. Vesaas spent the majority of his life in Vinje, living on the farmhouse that had belonged to his family for three centuries. Despite his apparent isolation, Vesaas proved to be a prolific writer, publishing twenty-five novels and several volumes of poetry, short stories, and plays in his lifetime. He won several awards, including the Gyldendal's endowment in 1943, The Nordic Council's Literature prize in 1963 for his novel, The Ice Palace, and the Venice Prize in 1953 for The Winds. His novel The Birds was published by Archipelago in 2016. He was considered for the Nobel Prize three times. About the translator: Elizabeth Rokkan was a professor of English at the University of Bergen, Norway from 1964 to 1990. She has received critical acclaim for her translations of the work of Tarjei Vesaas and Cora Sandel, and was awarded the St. Olav Medal for her efforts to make Norwegian literature available to English speakers.

Review:

"Vesaas writes beautifully about the natural world, but he presents it as a frequently harsh and brutal place. Early in the book, one character encounters a crane, and a sublime passage about the grace with which birds move gives way to something much more visceral ... There's beauty to be found outdoors, but it's not without its horrors.The conflicted role of humans in nature is a familiar theme, but few narratives hum with the surreal power of this one." — Kirkus Reviews

"This final work by one of Norway’s most significant writers of the 20th century has the abstract, colorist strangeness of Matisse’s late wall-hangings. What would happen if landscape entirely superseded people (as if this doesn’t happen when we die). Here’s a beautiful, arresting answer." –John Freeman, Lithub

"This episodic novel was Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas’s last book before his death, and the English translation by Elizabeth Rokkan relates a complex, overlapping set of vignettes that take place against the backdrop of the Norwegian countryside." -Emma Specter, Vogue

"Tarjei Vesaas is the best and most interesting Norwegian writer after the Second World War. His language is so sensitive, so open to his characters' minds and the landscape they inhabit, that it gives form to that space between - between people and other people, between people and nature - the space where our lives unfold." -Karl Ove Knausgaard

"A clear crystal of imagination...a rare kind of masterpiece" -Daily Telegraph

"A rare mixture of creative vitality, conviction and artistry." -Guardian

"An excellent translation by Elizabeth Rokkan catches the quiet, poetic mood." -Sunday Telegraph

"Infinitely calm and strong." -Daily Telegraph

"Disturbing and beautiful...elaborate and powerful." -Sunday Times

"A book of great strength and beauty." -The Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Archipelago
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1939810388
• ISBN 13: 9781939810380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272