Out Stealing Horses
English language first ed.
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| Author | Per Petterson |
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| Original title | Ut og stjæle hester |
| Translator | Anne Born |
| Country | Norway |
| Language | Norwegian |
| Publisher | Harvill Secker (UK), Graywolf Press (USA), Forlaget Oktober (Norway) |
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Publication date
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2003 |
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Published in English
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April 2007 (USA), November 2005 (UK) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 240pp (UK hardback) |
| ISBN | (UK), 1555974708 (USA) |
| OCLC | 61702863 |
Out Stealing Horses (Norwegian: Ut og stjæle hester) is a 2003 Norwegian novel by Per Petterson. It was translated into English in 2005 by Anne Born, published in the UK that year, and in the US in 2007. Among other awards it won the 2007 Dublin IMPAC Award, one of the richest literary prizes in the world.
Out Stealing Horses has double meanings and two sets of twins. When asked “How did the Nazi Occupation of Norway translate into the plot of your novel?” Mr. Petterson responded “Well, like I said, I do not plan, so that double meaning came up when I needed it. That is disappointing to some readers, I know. But for me it shows the strength of art. It is like carving out a sculpture from some material. You have to go with the quality of the material and not force upon it a form that it will not yield to anyway. That will only look awkward. Early in the book, in the 1948 part, I let the two fathers (of my main characters, Jon and Trond) have a problem with looking at each other. And I wondered, why is that? So I thought, well, it’s 1948, only three years after the Germans left Norway. It has to be something with the war. And then I thought, shit, I have to write about the war. You see, I hate research.”
The events in this story are revealed to the reader out of chronological order. The following is a reconstruction of the timeline of the events in the story.
In the original language the novel won the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, and in English (translation by Anne Born) it won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2007 Dublin IMPAC Award, one of the richest literary prizes in the world. Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #4, and praising it as a "page-turner". It was shortlisted for the 2008 Best Translated Book Award.
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