I Refuse

Illuminated by a clear and insightful knowledge of what it means to be human... Petterson is really a masterful depictor of contemporary life

Nordjyske, Denmark

I Refuse is, despite its apparent realism, a nearly magical literary experience... It simply does not get much better than this

Ekstra Bladet, Denmark

A masterpiece...at least as good as Out Stealing Horses... Intimate, shocking, demanding, raw

Morgenbladet, Norway

Petterson confirms his reputation as Scandinavia's leading realist writer...the heart-rending contrast between power and powerlessness, silence and speech is anchored in every word in these pages. And in the reader’s soul

Kristeligt Dagblad, Denmark

Norwegian literature's clearest shining star...a masterful novel about friendship, violence and destruction

Information, Denmark

A strenuous examination of how grief reverberates down the decades

Anthony Cummins, Metro

The Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano claims to have written a version of the same novel throughout his career; in a sense so has Petterson, but his anguished precision is such that no one should complain

Telegraph

A poignant, melancholic novel about the bonds forged and broken between friends and family members

Lucy Scholes, Independent

A brilliant study of memory, poetic in its juxtaposition of the vague with the precise, and of the ordinary with the life-defining

Bookmunch (Blog)

An extraordinarily humane work…I Refuse will lodge in the heart and remain there

Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

Relentless, often shocking, but always satisfying…telling each man’s story with brutal honesty and poignantly reinforcing a sense of existential malaise

Matthew Bremner, Financial Times

An exquisite story of a friendship formed and lost in a twist of fate

Scotsman

There is such elegant subtlety to this story

Irish Independent

A moving story of a group of lost souls, all struggling to make sense of their existence and exert some control over their lives

i

Petterson’s signature technique lies in drawing the most zigzag line imaginable through narrative chronology but the effect is not of confusion, rather of a dense, layered complexity: it is the realist novel form’s mimetic faithfulness to life itself

Neel Mukherjee, Guardian

The suspense isn't in the plot but in the prose, with its extraordinary looping sentences

Blake Morrison, Guardian Books of the Year

A moving, complex short novel that is richer and more satisfying than most books several times its length

Daragh Reddin, Metro Herald

The suspense isn’t in the plot but the prose, with its extraordinary looping sentences

Blake Morrison, Guardian Weekly

A poignant novel about the bonds forged and broken between friends and family members

Independent

Relentless, often shocking, but always satisfying

Financial Times

A harrowing account of childhood, of friendship, and of family disruption… Precise, scrupulous and emotionally intense… Peterson is a skilled storyteller… An admirable and honest novel.

Eibhear Walshe, Irish Examiner