norway

This is the first in a six book series, totaling some 3,000 pages, about a quiet man from Norway reflecting on parts of his life. It is boring and breathtaking at the same time. The author ruminates on the death of his father and his own mortality as he shuffles through memories of his childhood and then the more recent past. Day-to-day events such as making breakfast, working at a computer, and making phone calls take center stage. We all do things like this every day and then forget about them. Somehow, Karl Ove Knausgaard makes them memorable.

Another Scandinavian “must-read” mystery, this complicated tale is set in and around Oslo.  The killer’s trademark is a snowman – placed outside the home of the victim, sometimes using parts of the victim in the design, as well as other creative means to communicate the theme.  Harry Hole is the detective inspector out to catch this first known serial killer of Norway.  He made the connection of the murders of several women over a period of 25 years.  Dark, complex and often grisly, this chronicle of death and the cat and mouse game the killer plays with Harry; it’s difficult to put down and a