The Birds
  • Published: 7 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241384886
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 226

The Birds

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 Jul 2019
EBook
7 Mar 2019
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'Tarjei Vesaas has written the best Norwegian novel ever, The Birds -- it is absolutely wonderful, the prose is so simple and so subtle, and the story is so moving that it would have been counted amongst the great classics from the last century if it had been written in one of the major languages' - Karl Ove Knausgaard

This is the story of Mattis, a mentally handicapped man who lives with and is cared for by his older sister, Hege. Within their isolated, lakeside existence, Mattis cannot make sense of his tangled thoughts, frightening apparitions, surges of emotion and clever insights. When a travelling lumberjack attracts Hege's affections, the disruption is too much for Mattis to bear.

This Norwegian masterpiece sensitively captures the mystic command of the natural world, the prison of unfulfilled time and the fragility of the human mind. The narrative is sparse, poetic and contemplative with an ending that crescendos into heartbreak.
  • Published: 7 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241384886
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 226
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Praise for The Birds

The Birds has a freshness that can only be due to its timeless subject matter... From the first page, this novel grips us with an acutely sensitive rendition of a mentally handicapped man's inner world

Kirkus Review

A masterpiece

Literary Review

A spare, icily humane story... The character of Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight. The translation conveys successfully a concentration of style and feeling that seems to be Vesaas' characteristic mark as a novelist

Sunday Times