The Ferryman and His Wife
A Novel
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A LIBRARY READS PICK AND ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025
In the spirit of Amor Towles and George Saunders, the renowned, bestselling Norwegian author Frode Grytten takes readers on a quietly epic journey: ferry driver Nils Vik’s last route along the fjord, on what he knows will be his last day alive.
Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.
His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge – from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.
Winner of the prestigious Brage Prize, and considered to be Grytten’s long-awaited masterpiece, The Ferryman and His Wife is the story of a quiet, yet utterly profound, life told in reverse. Timeless and absorbing, this is a novel about what we take with us – those moments that might seem insignificant as they happen but prove to be the most meaningful, in the end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The devastating English-language debut from Grytten concerns a Norwegian man who wakes up one rainy November morning in his house on a fjord knowing it will be the day he dies. Nils Vik's knowledge of his fate is not explained, but he's resigned to it as he prepares to take his ferry boat out to sea ("What do you take with you when you know you're not coming back?" Grytten writes). His wife, Marta, died of a stroke some time earlier, and he's lonely and melancholy. At sea, on what turns out to be a Dante-esque voyage, he's joined by the deceased family dog, Luna, as well as the ghosts of passengers he once ferried to and from his village. In addition to these spectral visitations, Nils reflects on other passengers, including a bloodthirsty cop named Trygve, from whom he rescued Luna. Nils also recalls meeting Marta for the first time, and how he instantly fell in love with her for "the way she tucked her hair behind her head." As the journey progresses and more sad and happy memories arise, Grytten skillfully weaves his wistful protagonist's life story without ever leaning on sentimentality. This will linger long in readers' minds.
