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A review by jeremyanderberg
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
4.0
“Those of us with the courage to open ourselves to that much love and not fear it - who can give joy to a dying child until the very end without withdrawing to save ourselves - those are our saints. It is not the martyrs. It is never the martyrs.”
Sheldon Horowitz, the 82-year-old star of the show, may or may not be suffering from dementia. He may or may not have been a Marine sniper in the Korean War. What we do know, from the get go, is that he’s been stubbornly transplanted to Oslo to live with his granddaughter and her Norwegian husband.
When a terrible crime takes place, Sheldon ends up fleeing with a young boy, and those military instincts of old kick into gear. Can his 80-year-old body do everything his mind wants it to, though?
While the crime plot takes center stage, there are a number of diversions — mostly in the form of Sheldon’s memories of interactions with his wife, friends, son, etc. — that take the reader through musings on war, getting older, what it means to be a parent, the regrets of a long life . . . it’s a rather soulful for a book that’s mostly categorized as a thriller.
As with any good book in that category, the strength lies in the superb combination of heart-pounding plot and excellent character building (the worst of the genre are those that center solely on a plot which relies on too many twists and turns). Sigrid, our sarcastic and gritty-as-hell police officer, is particularly delightful.
My immediate thought, within 50 pages or so, was that this was a really interesting mix of William Kent Kreuger’s Ordinary Grace (for its literary qualities) and A Man Called Ove (for its cantankerous old man qualities). It’s a book that will be equally enjoyed by both literary types and crime/mystery lovers (and everyone in between, frankly).
Norwegian By Night has everything going for it, and nearly nothing going against it. Miller has two other novels under his belt that I’m excited to read, particularly American By Day, which follows Sigrid to America.
Sheldon Horowitz, the 82-year-old star of the show, may or may not be suffering from dementia. He may or may not have been a Marine sniper in the Korean War. What we do know, from the get go, is that he’s been stubbornly transplanted to Oslo to live with his granddaughter and her Norwegian husband.
When a terrible crime takes place, Sheldon ends up fleeing with a young boy, and those military instincts of old kick into gear. Can his 80-year-old body do everything his mind wants it to, though?
While the crime plot takes center stage, there are a number of diversions — mostly in the form of Sheldon’s memories of interactions with his wife, friends, son, etc. — that take the reader through musings on war, getting older, what it means to be a parent, the regrets of a long life . . . it’s a rather soulful for a book that’s mostly categorized as a thriller.
As with any good book in that category, the strength lies in the superb combination of heart-pounding plot and excellent character building (the worst of the genre are those that center solely on a plot which relies on too many twists and turns). Sigrid, our sarcastic and gritty-as-hell police officer, is particularly delightful.
My immediate thought, within 50 pages or so, was that this was a really interesting mix of William Kent Kreuger’s Ordinary Grace (for its literary qualities) and A Man Called Ove (for its cantankerous old man qualities). It’s a book that will be equally enjoyed by both literary types and crime/mystery lovers (and everyone in between, frankly).
Norwegian By Night has everything going for it, and nearly nothing going against it. Miller has two other novels under his belt that I’m excited to read, particularly American By Day, which follows Sigrid to America.