It's not hard to see that Per Petterson bows at the literary altar of Raymond Carver. However, as opposed to the throngs of authors attempting to replicate the master's masculine disenchantment, Petterson chooses a different and far more successful way to honor his literary hero — by creating a novel that could be a sequel to a Carver short story, if one of Carver's frustrated protagonists had fled suburban wasteland for isolated, rural Norway.

In Out Stealing Horses, Trond, a man in the golden years of his life, ponders the tragedies of his past as he secludes himself in his new woodland home after leaving his former life in the bustling metropolis of Oslo, Norway. When he comes across his sole neighbor searching for a lost dog, Trond can't shake the feeling that he knows him from somewhere. The lingering sensation of strange familiarity pulls the reader back and forth in time as Trond recounts a summer spent in rural Norway, when his young life was forever altered by tragedies involving guns, fear, and boys growing into the men that they may not be ready to become. It's this open, natural expanse that allows Trond the time and space to reflect on life concepts such as choice versus fate and what it means to be a father.

Petterson keeps the story from becoming too introspective by adding delicate touches of Trond's boyhood, such as father-and-son fishing trips and building haystacks. This blending of the banal day-to-day and the intense flashes of a painful past simulate how one reflects on one's life — these recollections are not always emotionally thrilling, but always satisfyingly complete.

The novel clearly sets Petterson apart as a distinguished foreign author, but his rich character study contains such depth and universal emotion that the States can't help but take notice. Like Carver writing about men feeling smothered by their surroundings, Petterson shows that they can feel just as trapped and lost in the great outdoors as in the congested, cramped city.

-Diana Metzger