The story of the migrant workers who came to Norway in the 70s suddenly ended up on the agenda with the rappers Karpe and the record “Omar Sheriff” earlier this year. Through a picture everyone could understand: “Brown feet right in baraf” (snow, ice). It is the children who have started to speak up. Karpe asked the question directly to the parents: “What are you going to take with you, yara, when the air runs out of your lungs.” Chirag sang “with the accent of his mother”, as Klassekampen’s Yohan Shanmugaratnam wrote in a much-discussed comment in Klassekampen. Out of Groruddalen In “They call me the wolf”, Zeshan Shakar sings with the accent of the father’s generation, and asks the following follow-up questions: What do parents leave behind for their children and grandchildren when they disappear? AWARD WINNER: Zeshan Shakar received Tarjei Vesaas’ debutant prize for the book “Tante Ulrikke’s way” in 2018. The book has also been dramatized and is still performed at the Rommen stage at Stovner, under the auspices of Det Norske Teatret. Photo: Robert Rønning / news The Jeg narrator has taken a class trip out of Groruddalen in the east of Oslo. The father has remained in a municipal apartment, but has been told in writing that he will be relocated. He does not intend to be involved in that moving process. Instead, he has booked a one-way ticket back to where he came from: the Pakistani city of Lahore. “Fake” Ralph Lauren shirt In the last week before the flight leaves, the son helps his father pack the few belongings he has into suitcases and cardboard boxes. A photo of Pakistan’s founder, a youth photo of his father and a counterfeit Ralph Lauren shirt are some of the things that will be passed down from father to son. The father’s trilingual lingo, Urdu, English and Norwegian, is a primal study in itself. Most of all, these last days are about handing over a distinctive (Pakistani) male role, and a recognition that this way of being, even if never so Norwegian, has value. Impossible not to be fond of Faren is also a custodian of memories and a very special humorous way of being in the world. He too has ownership of his son’s life story. Zeshan Shakar draws a portrait of a former kiosk owner, now on disability benefits with a broken shoulder and recently undergone heart surgery, which is impossible not to like. The father, like most of those who came, has received a good dose of Norwegian everyday racism on the road, but copes with this with integrity and humour. But also resignation. “They call me the wolf” is also about love that arises between a Norwegian woman and a Pakistani man. She fights for her husband in the face of the Norwegian social security schemes. She is on a trip to Pakistan, and has to endure anonymous calls from people who call her a “Pakistani whore”. She represents the many Norwegians who acted as links and good helpers for the Pakistani men who came. Reminiscent of Annie Ernaux This eye for the representative is typical of sociology graduate Zeshan Shakar. He has that in common with this year’s Nobel Prize winner in literature, Annie Ernaux. Both depict protagonists who are social climbers, who leave their own class, also geographically, and establish themselves in middle-class areas – elsewhere in the city. Shakar has a way of telling that is distinctly down to earth – just like Ernaux. But he is more generous with the use of images than his French colleague. Groruddalen seen through the fogged windscreen of his father’s van appears like a watercolor painting: The comma begins to rock When this is combined with Pakistan’s great son, Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan, singing on the car stereo, the story begins to swing. The question marks are starting to sing, as Swedish Tomas Tranströmer says. Yes, even periods and commas are starting to rock. When the father finds “Outragious (!) Hit Collection – Biggest Hits from Top Films” from the glove compartment, our usual notions about how the world is screwed up begin to unravel. (There you have the actual meaning of literature.) There will not be as much use for our fixed ideas. The path to the tear ducts will be shorter. Zeshan Shakar has only written three novels, but has already achieved a lot. There is something inclusive, indeed almost popular, about these books. The blood flows more freely through the veins. “You can call me the wolf” is a literary bypass operation that will please many. news reviews Photo: Gyldendal Title: “They call me the wolf” Author: Zeshan Shakar Publisher: Gyldendal Genre: Novel Number of pages: 240 Date: October 2022 Hi! I read and review literature in news. Please also read my review of “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, “Etterliv” by Abdulrazak Gurnah or Franz Kafka’s “The Process” translated by Jon Fosse. Ole Torp interviews Zeshan Shakar about “Aunt Ulrikke’s way”.
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“They Call Me The Wolf” by Zeshan Shakar – Reviews and recommendations
