The Sixteen Trees of the Somme - Softcover

Lars Mytting

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857056069 ISBN 13: 9780857056061

Publisher: MacLehose Press, 2018

Synopsis

The Times bestseller by the author of NORWEGIAN WOOD, a family story of epic scale.

"An intricate story about war, family, secrets and,yes, wood ... An engaging, satisfying read" The Times

"So cleverly plotted, and it builds up such effortless dramatic momentum as it zeroes in on its conclusion" Scotsman

Edvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery - he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother.

But he knows that the fate of his grandfather's brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death - a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all.

Edvard's desperate quest to unlock the family's tragic secrets takes him on a long journey - from Norway to the Shetlands, and to the battlefields of France - to the discovery of a very unusual inheritance. The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is about the love of wood and finding your own self, a beautifully intricate and moving tale that spans an entire century.

Mytting's book is as much a romantic historical thriller as it is a book of promise, a page-turner as it is a reflective journey into selfhood, history, life's meaning and individual moral responsibility - Mika Provata-Carlone, Bookanista

Translated from the Norwegian by Paul Russell Garrett

About this title

Review:

Mytting's book is as much a romantic historical thriller as it is a book of promise, a page-turner as it is a reflective journey into selfhood, history, life's meaning and individual moral responsibility (Mika Provata-Carlone Bookanista)

Mytting follows up Norwegian Wood with a mystery that fits together like a piece of fine marquetry (Christian House Observer 2017-08-20)

The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is so cleverly plotted, and it builds up such effortless dramatic momentum as it zeroes in on its conclusion (Roger Cox Scotsman 2017-08-18)

The tug of this book on the heart and mind is irresistible . . . And you will, I think, struggle to find a modern novel in which the emotional, imaginative lure of trees and wood is as powerful. (Michael Duggan Catholic Herald Books of the Year.)

Though the twists of discovery drive the plot, it is the intimacy with the natural world - as we might expect from the author of the phenomenally successful Norwegian Wood - that most compels us: potato-flowers, islets, storm petrels, walnut trees and walnut wood. (Paul Binding Times Literary Supplement 2018-01-26)

Book Description:

A 20th-century family saga of epic scale, by the author of Norwegian Wood

About this edition

• Publisher: MacLehose Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0857056069
• ISBN 13: 9780857056061
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416