Long Live the Post Horn!
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4.6 • 9 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A “gripping, inspiring, and politically revolutionary” novel about loneliness, inadequacy, and connection, set against the backdrop of the Norwegian postal service—for fans of Nicole Krauss and Sheila Heti (Vanity Fair).
From the prize-winning Norwegian author of Will and Testament, longlisted for the National Book Award.
Ellinor, a 35-year-old media consultant, has not been feeling herself; she’s not been feeling much at all lately. Far beyond jaded, she picks through an old diary and fails to recognize the woman in its pages, seemingly as far away from the world around her as she’s ever been. But when her coworker vanishes overnight, an unusual new task is dropped on her desk. Off she goes to meet the Norwegian Postal Workers Union, setting the ball rolling on a strange and transformative six months.
This is an existential scream of a novel about loneliness (and the postal service!), written in Vigdis Hjorth’s trademark spare, rhythmic and cutting style.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Norwegian writer Hjorth's bleak and wry tale (after Will and Testament) turns on a challenge to the national postal service from the private sector. In the winter of 2010 2011, a European Union debate on whether to open up certain postal services to competition makes its way to nonmember Norway. Kraft-Kom, a small media consultant firm, has been contracted by the postal workers union to make a public appeal to vote against the measure. Ellinor and a coworker are charged with helming the campaign, a task that has fallen to them after the suicide of their colleague Dag. The reassignment jeopardizes the campaign, as Dag's death along with Ellinor's plateauing romance have shaken Ellinor into an existential slump. What pulls Ellinor from her languor and reinvigorates her work is a story involving an undelivered letter and the dedication of one postman to find its addressee. Ellinor's ennui is enlivened, in Barslund's sharp translation, by Hjorth's candid prose and concise paragraphs, a style that allows Ellinor to pivot between dry musings and sardonic narration. The effect is entertaining in small doses but tends to drag in the long term. Still, Hjorth's substantive and witty novel of personal growth delivers on multiple levels.
