*Winner of the prestigious Norwegian Booksellers' Prize*
*A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection (Holiday
2011)*
A glorious evocation of a Norwegian childhood in the early sixties by an
author short-listed for the 2009 Dublin IMPAC Award
Little Finn lives with his mother in an apartment in a working-class
suburb of Oslo. Life is a struggle to make ends meet, but he does not
mind. When his mother decides to take a lodger to help pay the bills, he
watches with interest as she freshens up their small apartment with new
wallpaper and a sofa paid for in installments. He befriends their new
male lodger, whose television is more tempting to him than his mother
would like.
When a half sister whom he never knew joins the household, Finn takes
her under his wing over an everlasting summer on Håøya Island. But he
can't understand why everyone thinks his new sister is so different from
every other child. Nor can he fathom his mother's painful secret, one
that pushes them ever farther apart. As summer comes to a close, Finn
must attempt to grasp the incomprehensible adult world and his place
within it.
Child Wonder is a powerful and unsentimental portrait of childhood.
Roy Jacobsen, through the eyes of a child, has produced an immensely
uplifting novel that shines with light and warmth.