Norwegian novelist Jo Nesbo's first book has won many awards, among them them something called 'the best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written.' Pretty heady words for a first novel. I did like it a great deal, in fact, I have his next novel, THE SNOWMAN, sitting on my desk. This novel, as I mentioned earlier in my Blog, was confusing at first because you are not sure how the parts connect. One strand deals with Inspector Harry Hole, your typical crusty, solitary, veteran detective, usually at odds with the system, who embarrasses himself and the department in a misidentified shooting accident. Ironically, he gets promoted, to avoid further embarrassment for the party, which allows him to begin investigating the fact that a sniper rifle has been imported to Norway, most likely among Nazi sympathizers. The trail of this rifle, who ordered it, what for, and the consequences of its importing, are the main stuff of the novel. The other strange, disconnected at first, is the narrative of four Norwegian men, who volunteered to fight with the Nazis against the Russians. We see them in the trenches, how they interact, what happens to them after they get wounded, and their repatriation to Norway as traitors to their country, to their utter dismay and anger. Gradually the two strands come together and form the major narrative of the story. Of course, there's a love interest, Rakel Fauke, who at first seems outside of the events but ends up being connected, albeit unknowingly, to the center. You don't get much of a feel for Norway in this novel, mostly a sense of the political climate after the war, a bit of the department and it's politics in the present. His style makes the text very readable, as there are mostly short chapters of three or four pages, as he moves through the various dates, whether in the present, the year 2000, or the past, mostly 1944. The translation seemed fine and I hardly realized I was reading a text that had bee translated. I can see why Nesbo is so admired.
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