Reissued to tie in with the publication of Petterson's award- winning Out Stealing Horses, this is a similarly bleak novel about the effects of guilt upon an individual life — but with a contemporary, not a wartime setting. It begins with a moment of crisis: Arvid, a Norwegian writer, finds himself in a dishevelled state outside the bookshop where he used to work, with no memory of how he came to be there. He wanders around Oslo, loses his keys, and eventually beds a sympathetic neighbour — but even this fails to lift him out of his despair.

Through a series of flashbacks we learn something of the circumstances that have led to Arvid's breakdown, in which his difficult relationship with his father plays a significant part. His father's death six years before in a terrible accident, which also killed Arvid's mother and two of his siblings, has meant that this can never be put right. The attempted suicide of Arvid's brother midway through the book adds to the psychological pressure he is under — although, since he is also getting over a failed marriage, a flagging career and estrangement from his two young daughters, one feels that this is over-egging the pudding.

Petterson is a fine writer, and there are some austerely lyrical passages — in particular those describing the Norwegian landscape. There are moments, too, of dry humour, which help to relieve the angst. But readers in search of light relief should give this novel a miss.

In the Wake Per Petterson

Translation by Anne Born

Vintage, £12

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