“The day Nils Vik died”. The title reveals the theme of Frode Grytten’s new novel. It is a gentle and quiet narrative. Short and concise. A worthy winner of this year’s Brage Prize in fiction for adults. Death is in the book. But life is the point. Everything it holds. The people. The fjord. The love. Work and friendship. The family. Nils Vik is old. Widower. Health is no longer at its best. One early morning in November, he knows that this is the day. He gets up. Shaving: The plan is “to walk across the fjord”. He means it concretely. But also transferred. “The other side” is a common linguistic image of death. On the other hand, he is looking forward to meeting his wife, Marta. He misses her so much. More than he has words for. “The day Nils Vik died” is a novel about the long, slow, everyday love. The one who is not without hard days. But who stands the storm off. It’s touching. Full of hope. Well done – because it can be difficult to write about love without it becoming petty. The pot makes it happen. Frode Grytten Photo: Mikal Olsen Lerøen/news Made his debut with the poetry collection “Start” in 1983. Received the Brage prize in 1999 for “Bikubesong”, which has also become a theatre. Received the Riverton prize 2005 for “Flytande bjørn”, although it is debatable whether the book is a crime novel. Perhaps best known for many collections of short stories, such as “Long-distance swimmers”, “Pop songs”, “Room by the sea, room by the city”, “Men no need”, “Garasjeland” and “Boy, jente, juni, juli”. Has also written children’s books, essays, photo books, drama – and several commissioned texts in various genres on various topics, including many poems about sport, especially football, which Grytten is preoccupied with. Feel free to experiment. As in “Waiting for the bird”, first written on Twitter, where each mini-short story is a maximum of 140 characters. Has his own band, Frode Grytten Beat Band. Ferryman on the fjord Nils has worked as a ferryman all his life. Ferryman. He has his own boat. With it, he has transported people across and across the fjord. On this very last journey of his, many former passengers reappear. All long since dead. It might sound strange. But Grytten makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world. Life and death are connected. Not least for the one who knows that he is going to die. Then life passes in revue. Dead passengers Nils puts out on the fjord. First his cat appears. Luna. She was hit 20-25 years ago. Now she talks to her owner, just like before. Nils will be happy. CAN DO MOST: Frode Grytten is called “a kind of literary jack of all trades” by Professor Per Thomas Andersen at the University of Oslo. That’s a good summary! Photo: TV 2 Then, on headland after headland, there are people he has known. The guitar boy, who had a hard time at home, but who did good work as an assistant on the boat. Married couple arguing. Married couple who don’t argue. The strict teacher, who resented miserable students, but who remained in the fjord of unquenchable love. The occasional celebrity. The midwife, who celebrates each birth with a dram. Police officers. Politicians. The priest. With short, effective strokes, Frode Grytten outlines the individual. He’s good at it. One of the best. A typical reply. A clear character trait. Grytten knows what to go with. And – even more importantly – he knows where to stop. When it’s enough. Not for nothing is he perhaps best known for short stories. Poem. Short texts. The music in the text This is his first novel in ten years. The first was called “Burn the house down”, and was about the punk band The Clash. Music also plays a role in “The day Nils Vik died”. Not as pronounced as in, for example, “Pop songs”, which were written directly against song lyrics. But this book also has a clear rhythm. A musicality. Something “typically Gryttensk”. The book is also a love letter to the fjord. To the people there. To the landscape itself. Nils thinks about what he has learned from the work. Of life. Nils gets annoyed with townspeople who only see “nature”, without nuances. Who want the fjord as a recreational area, without having to bend over backwards. At the same time, he likes the city. Loves the beautiful bridge over the fjord – even if it ruined his career. Talking to others The ferryman is a classic figure in Greek myths. He transports the dead to the underworld. Nils Vik will transport himself. “Bring me a boat”, he sings towards the end. A direct echo of “Bring me a boat”, a wise song by Kate Rusby. Frode Grytten also writes in dialogue with other authors. Sometimes there are clear quotations in the text, even whole lines. Other times it is perhaps the mood the author is “talking to”. Or the theme. He thanks his colleagues at the end of the text. A sympathetic trait. Loudly inclusive. And interesting. This is also the case with the novel “Den dagen Nils Vik”. It is a novel about a life that is as ordinary, and therefore unusual, as most lives. On weekdays, And on minna, you sit together. All this safely unloaded ashore by the steady literary helmsman Frode Grytten. news reports Photo: October Title: “The day Nils Vik died” Author: Frode Grytten Publisher: October Number of pages: 411 Hi! I am a literary critic at news, with a particular interest in Norwegian and published fiction. Feel free to read my message about the historical novels “Xiania” by Lotta Elstad and “Skråpånatta” by Lars Mytting, or “Unwanted behavior” by Olaug Nilssen. Feel free to write to me! Not quite ready for Christmas yet? Frode Grytten understands:
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“The day Nils Vik died” by Frode Grytten – news Culture and entertainment
