Per Petterson Knihy

Jesper a jeho malá sestra vyrůstají na dánském venkově za druhé světové války, vypořádávají se s odtažitými rodiči, početnou výstřední rodinou a chladným větrem. Jesper sní o cestě na jih do Maroka, zatímco jeho sestra touží dostat se na Sibiř. Sebevražda jejich dědečka, nástup puberty a především německá invaze však jejich idylické dětské vztahy zpřetrhají. Po letech se Jesperova sestra marně snaží zakotvit v některém ze skandinávských měst. Uzavřena do své samoty doufá ve znovusetkání s bratrem… Něžně melancholický, poutavý portrét výjimečné ženy od autora románu Jít krást koně (Knižní klub, 2007), vydaného ve 37 jazycích. Próza Na Sibiř byla nominována na Severskou cenu za literaturu.

Jímavý příběh o měnícím se pohledu na život a na svět, o snaze žít jednoduše a klidně. Nadanému norskému spisovateli se podařilo, a to bez náznaku sentimentu, vyjádřit a zachytit v podstatě nezachytitelné – hloubku a podivnost lidských emocí. Vynikající novela sbírá jednu literární cenu za druhou: Norwegian Critics Award, Booksellers' Best Book of the Year Award (Norsko), Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (UK), IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Je podzim roku 1989. Komunistické zřízení ve východní Evropě se hroutí a v troskách se ocitá i svět Arvida Janssona – jeho čeká rozvod, jeho matce právě diagnostikovali rakovinu. Arvid odjíždí do chaty na dánském pobřeží, kde strávil dětství, a pokouší se tam přehodnotit svůj život. Vybavují se mu letní dny na pláži ve společnosti bratrů, první lásky i mladistvý levicový idealismus, který se postavil mezi něj a sny jeho matky. Teď kolem ní Arvid váhavě krouží a není schopen se jí svěřit s tím, co ona už stejně dávno ví... Mistrné vyprávění bez námahy proplouvá řekou času a znovu čtenáře přesvědčuje o autorově hlubokém porozumění lidské duši. A nejen čtenáře – Peru Pettersonovi byla za tento román udělena Literární cena Severské rady, nejprestižnější ocenění, jaké lze za umělecké dílo napsané v některém ze severských jazyků získat.

Petterson je autor niterný, přemýšlivý, poklidný – v nejnovějším románu Muži v mé situaci v tomto stylu pokračuje. Prožívá dramatickou osobní situaci a nelítostně a posmutněle líčí, jak se láska v manželství změní v ledově studený vztah. Ve hře jsou i tři dcery, které se stavějí na stranu matky. Hlavní hrdina musí odcházet z domova a k pozoruhodným scénám patří i to, že několikrát musí přenocovat v autě. A autor jako by vyvolal už téměř zapomenutou soudržnost mezi muži v kritické situaci…

On his first day of school, a teacher welcomes Audun to the class by asking him to describe his former life in the country. But there are stories about his family he would prefer to keep to himself, such as the weeks he spent living in a couple of cardboard boxes, and the day of his little brother's birth, when his drunken father fired three shots into the ceiling. So he refuses to talk and refuses to take off his sunglasses. In his late teens Audun is the only one of his family who remains with his mother in their home in a working-class district of Oslo. He delivers newspapers when he is not in school and talks for hours about Jack London and Ernest Hemingway with his best friend Arvid. But he's not sure that school is the right path for him, feeling that life holds other possibilities.

Two men meet by accident on a bridge early one morning. Once they were best friends – but Tommy and Jim haven’t seen each other for 35 years. Back then, Tommy and his sister were abandoned by their mother and later by their abusive father, and Jim, who lived alone with his religious mother, went to high school and became a socialist. Then one winter, Jim started to doubt whether he was deserving of the friendship. Now Jim is standing on the bridge, fishing, when Tommy drives by in his expensive new Mercedes. I Refuse follows both men during the course of the fateful day that follows. Per Petterson’s outstanding new novel is broader in scope than many of his previous novels, but as powerful and moving as anything he has ever written.

I refuse to compromise. I refuse to forgive. I refuse to forget. The major new novel from the author of Out Stealing Horses. 'Tommy. How long have we been friends.' 'All of our lives,' Tommy said. 'I can't remember us ever not being friends. When would that have been.' Jim said. 'I think it could last the rest of our lives,' he said carefully, in a low voice. 'Don't you think.' 'It will last if we want it to. It depends on us. We can be friends for as long as we want to.' Tommy's mother has gone. She walked out into the snow one night, leaving him and his sisters with their violent father. Without his best friend Jim, Tommy would be in trouble. But Jim has challenges of his own which will disrupt their precious friendship. A TLS and Guardian Book of the Year

Early one morning Arvid finds himself standing outside the bookshop where he used to work, drunk, dirty, with two fractured ribs, and no idea how he came to be there.

Anticipating a divorce against a backdrop of the fall of communism, Arvid Jansen is further dismayed by his mother's diagnosis with cancer, a situation that prompts his emotionally charged quest for understanding and balance

Per Petterson masters the art of writing simply of big subjects, and the stories in this collection - his debut, published in English for the first time - are beautiful tales of growing up in all its complexity, its wonders and confusions. Arvid Jansen is six years old and lives on the outskirts of Oslo. It's the early 60s, and his father works in a shoe factory; his Danish mother works as a cleaner. Arvid wets his bed at night and has nightmares about crocodiles, but slowly begins to piece the world together. His grandfather dies and he cries on seeing a photograph of his mother as a young woman - learning about the passing of time and growing old; and the world opens up to him when a teacher at his school says he and his fellow pupils must pray to God over the looming nuclear war.