The Ice Palace

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'I'm surprised it isn't the most famous book in the world' Max Porter 
 
'How simple this novel is. How subtle. How strong. How unlike any other. It is unique. It is unforgettable. It is extraordinary' Doris Lessing 
 
 
'She was close to the edge now: the ice laid its hand upon her' 
 
The schoolchildren call it the Ice Palace: a frozen waterfall in the Norwegian fjords transformed into a fantastic structure of translucent walls, sparkling towers and secret chambers. It fascinates two young girls, lonely Unn and lively Siss, who strike up an intense friendship. When Unn decides to explore the Ice Palace alone and doesn't return, Siss must try to cope with the loss of her friend without succumbing to a frozen world of her own making.

How simple this novel is. How subtle. How strong. How unlike any other. It is unique. It is unforgettable. It is extraordinary.

It is hard to do justice to The Ice Palace . . . The narrative is urgent, the descriptions relentlessly beautiful, the meaning as powerful as the ice piling up on the lake.

Vesaas's laconic sentences are as cold and simple as ice - and as fantastic.

The atmosphere created is magical: rather than explaining something, he will just plant a poetic statement and let it grow within you.

But if I had to choose a book I'm surprised isn't the most famous book in the world it might be The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas.

A haunting story, full of ice and wind and poetry.

If I had to choose a book I'm surprised isn't the most famous book in the world it might be The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas.

Tarjei Vesaas (Author) Tarjei Vesaas died at the age of 72 in the same small village where he was born: Vinje in Telemark, an isolated mountainous district of southern Norway. He wrote more than 25 novels and was nominated 30 times for the Nobel Prize.

In winter, the black ice cracks like a gunshot across the lake, growing thicker and darker every night. Nearby, a frozen waterfall transforms into a fantastic, baroque structure with dripping buttresses, flying spurs of ice and translucent, sparkling towers. The schoolchildren call it the ice palace. 
 
When eleven-year-old Unn arrives in the village, she avoids the other children: she lives alone with her aunt and nurses a secret grief. But her boisterous classmate Siss refuses to be ignored and the two girls strike up an intense friendship. That is, until Unn decides to explore the Ice Palace on her own, squeezing deep into its beautiful but chilling inner chambers. 
 
When Unn doesn't return home, Siss must struggle to cope with the loss of her friend, without succumbing to an ice palace of her own making.

Tarjei Vesaas

Torbjorn Stoverud

Michael Barnes

The Birds has a freshness that can only be due to its timeless subject matter... From the first page, this novel grips us with an acutely sensitive rendition of a mentally handicapped man's inner world

A spare, icily humane story... The character of Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight. The translation conveys successfully a concentration of style and feeling that seems to be Vesaas' characteristic mark as a novelist

This is the story of Mattis, a mentally handicapped man who lives with and is cared for by his older sister, Hege. Within their isolated, lakeside existence, Mattis cannot make sense of his tangled thoughts, frightening apparitions, surges of emotion and clever insights. When a travelling lumberjack attracts Hege's affections, the disruption is too much for Mattis to bear. 
 
This Norwegian masterpiece sensitively captures a mystic command of the natural world, the prison of unfulfilled time and the fragility of the human mind. The narrative is sparse, poetic and contemplative, with an ending that crescendos into heartbreak.

Tarjei Vesaas

Praise for The Birds

The Birds has a freshness that can only be due to its timeless subject matter... From the first page, this novel grips us with an acutely sensitive rendition of a mentally handicapped man's inner world

A masterpiece

A spare, icily humane story... The character of Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight. The translation conveys successfully a concentration of style and fe ...

The Birds has a freshness that can only be due to its timeless subject matter... From the first page, this novel grips us with an acutely sensitive rendition of a mentally handicapped man's inner world

A masterpiece

A spare, icily humane story... The character of Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight. The translation conveys successfully a concentration of style and fe ...

The Birds has a freshness that can only be due to its timeless subject matter... From the first page, this novel grips us with an acutely sensitive rendition of a mentally handicapped man's inner world

A masterpiece

A spare, icily humane story... The character of Mattis, absurd and boastful, but also sweet, pathetic and even funny, is shown with great insight. The translation conveys successfully a concentration of style and fe ...

Books by Tarjei Vesaas

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