Winner English PEN Award
Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize
One of the great contemporary portraits of Nordic Life
The brilliant second novel in the Encircling trilogy, a searing psychological portrait of a man by his friends
In this second Encircling book, set on the backwater island of Otterøya, Tiller continues the singular premise of his prizewinning trilogy. David, the enigmatic and absent central character, has lost his memory. At the behest of his psychiatrist, three friends send in letters about the childhood they shared. We hear from Ole, a hardworking, naive, farmer struggling on the brink of marital breakdown; from Tom Roger, a musclebound outsider fearful of spiraling into domestic violence; and from Paula, a midwife retired to an old people’s home, where she guards explosive secrets of her own and David’s past.
Using a carefully scored polyphony of voices, and unflinching domestic focus, Tiller shows how deeply identity is influenced by our friendships. The Encircling trilogy presents an epic saga of Norwegian life that is both starkly honest and unnervingly true.
