The Hills Reply by Tarjei Vesaas

The Hills Reply by Tarjei Vesaas

“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 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, The Hills Reply, is a flow of intensely lyrical autobiographical scenes. The vivid beauty of the wilds of Norway grounds the narrator’s interior flashes. The first sketch finds a boy, his father, and their packhorse clearing a logging road buried in snow as their surroundings give way to a crisis. Profound insights into human behavior, solitude, and nonverbal communication stand up to the power and immensity of the natural world. The land speaks to (and at times almost swallows) the central character, as he is pushed to the edge of what a body and mind can endure. The hypnotic pulse of Vesaas’s prose blurs the line between memory and hallucination, as it stares bravely into the unblinking eye of Nature. An unforgettable book, The Hills Reply is a visceral salute to the human spirit, to the ecstasy of wilderness, and to their tender overlapping.

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781939810380
ISBN 10	1939810388
Title	The Hills Reply
Author	Tarjei Vesaas
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Archipelago Books
Year published	2019-12-10
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.