The book, whose title is taken from one of Mao’s poems, is about Arvid Jansen in the middle of a life crisis. His wife leaves him, and serious illness threatens his mother's life. The book centres on the relationship between mother and son, and the relationship between Arvid and his wife at the time they met each other and became lovers. The strong but fragile love in these two relationships is an important part of the story, love which Petterson imparts in his very own way. The past and Arvid’s defection from college to become an industrial worker, in good Maoist spirit, are also central to the story.

The Nordic Council Adjudication Committee draws out both the language and the unspoken in their explanation of the reasons for awarding the Nordic Council Literature Prize to the Norwegian author.

“The protagonist in the novel describes his experiences and his fragmented memoirs with several crises of life in his own family.  In a poetic and quiet language Petterson brings across how difficult it is to say what feels like the most important things to say to each other, the committee said in the press release when the winner was announced on 3 April 2009.

The unspoken
Per Petterson is consumed by that which is not said, and has said “that which we do not say marks our lives more than that which is said”.  But how do you grasp all that is unspoken?

“There is no easy answer to that. Many people say that I am good at writing between the lines, but that is just a cliché. It is what is on the lines that counts, and I believe that it has something to do with precision, to see how people choose to appear or what they don't know about how they appear. See it. Sometimes I don’t know any more about it than my characters. But I see what I see", says the author.

And Per Petterson sees well, and his language enchants many readers and has been described by literature critics as 'humdrum poetry', 'quiet and poignant' and 'taut, sober and unaffected'. He says himself that his writing process is full of expectation and that he is scared stiff of writing nonsense. Patience is an important keyword for the Norwegian author.

“I know when a sentence is bad, when it is not productive and will not lead me anywhere. Score it out as fast as possible! Otherwise I can’t move on. Every sentence is a continuation of the one before, that is the only working method I know. Sometimes ‘it comes by itself’. But experience helps a lot, the fact that I have done things before. That I know what is what.

Petterson was inspired by Sandemose, Hemingway, Cora Sandel and Pär Lagerkvist but he waited until he was 35 for his debut.

“I couldn’t write like them, I couldn’t get it to work. That’s why I was 35 before I published my first book. I was waiting for myself, I suppose”, he says.

The greatest prize
But he who waits for something good, waits not in vain, as we know. This is, in fact, not the first time that Petterson has won a prize for his books. The author has already been awarded several internationally recognised prizes throughout his literary career. Amongst others, his previous book Out Stealing Horses (Ut og stjæle hester) won a number of literature prizes, for example, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2007. Even so, Petterson feels there is extra value in winning the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize for the book that took him 3 years to write.

“The Nordic Council Literature Prize is the greatest prize for an author in our part of the world. There are prizes and prizes, and I have received some, but this ranks highest for me, a great recognition”, says Petterson who was also nominated for the prize in 1997 for his novel To Siberia (Til Sibir).

The Nordic Council’s Literature Prize is worth DKK 350,000 and often leads to further distinctions, honours, fame and excellent book sales.

Per Petterson’s life has stood far from still since he won the prize.

“I have been overwhelmed and swamped with phone calls and letters. It has been brilliant. And I have written, actually, and I have got a lot of work done on my farm. All with great pleasure.

Out for a drive
It adds to the story to learn that it took some time before the prizewinner himself got the message. The Adjudication Committee phoned a namesake, who was a little bewildered, but luckily admitted that he was not the famous author. Because it took a long time for the message to get through, Per Petterson thought that the Nordic literature prize had gone to someone else this time.

So the author had gone out for a drive in the car to think about something else when the message finally came. Going for a drive is also something that the recurring character in Petterson’s books, Arvid Jansen, resorts to at regular intervals.

“Driving the car is movement when the body is restless, you can think or just look out, and if you drive with your wife and you don’t quite agree on certain things, no one can go and slam the door after them. Not at 80 kilometres an hour", says Per Petterson, who seems to enjoy driving.

Just as in I Curse the River of Time (Jeg forbanner tidens elv) the author’s mother is from Denmark and Petterson himself has a clear relationship with the Nordic region.

“I have always had a clear and defined relationship to the Nordic region as its own cultural area, even though at times it cannot be said that this has been the case in reality. My mother is Danish, my father was born to Swedish parents in Oslo (Kristiania, 1911). Strindberg was one of the heroes at home, I have read everything by Vainö Linna, Scherfig, Aksel Sandemose etc. In the late eighties all the awful TV channels like Sky Channel, Super Channel came along and ruined much of the Nordic 'feeling' with people, but I fly the flag.

In his next book, which he has already begun to write, Petterson writes about two friends.

“I do not know what is bothering them, but I will find out", says Petterson, who will be awarded the 2009 literature prize during the Nordic Council Session in Stockholm at the end of October.

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