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Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Rokkan
Two 11-year old girls, Unn and Siss, meet: Unn is about to
reveal a secret, one that leads to her death in a formation
of ice caused by a large waterfall.
Siss’s struggle with her fidelity to the memory of a
friend, the strange frozen world of the waterfall and the
description of Unn’s fatal exploration of the ice palace
are described in prose of a lyrical economy that ranks among
the memorable achievements of modern literature.
‘How simple this novel is. How subtle. How strong.
How unlike any other. It is unique. It is unforgettable. It
is extraordinary.’ — Doris Lessing, Independent
‘It is hard to do justice to The Ice Palace .
. . The narrative is urgent, the descriptions relentlessly
beautiful, the meaning as powerful as the ice piling up on
the lake.’ — The Times
‘Vesaas’s laconic sentences are as cold and simple
as ice — and as fantastic.’ — Daily Telegraph
‘Believable and haunting . . . this beautiful and neo-prose
poem is as sombre and Scandinavian as a Bergman film . . .
the evocation of rime, frost and cracking ice have so eternal
a quality that the mention of a passing car comes almost as
a shock.’ — Nova
‘Austere poetical clarity, stoical wisdom and a vivid
response to nature.’ — Times Literary Supplement
TARJEI VESAAS was born in 1897 in the remote rural
Telemark district of Norway, where he spent most of his life.
Throughout his life he published several novels, volumes of
poetry and a book of short stories which was awarded an international
prize at Venice in 1952. He was awarded several other prizes
and was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in 1964, 1968 and
again in 1969. He died in 1970, his reputation as the leading
Nordic writer firmly established. |
