{"product_id":"osebol-9780141994499","title":"Osebol","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e AND \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003eBOOK OF THE YEAR\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF SWEDEN''S AUGUST PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE WARWICK PRIZE FOR WOMEN IN TRANSLATION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''\u003ci\u003eOsebol \u003c\/i\u003eis a magnificent success; it is hard to imagine it better ... Kapla is a magician ... mesmerizing''\u003c\/b\u003e  Sara Wheeler, \u003ci\u003eTLS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A simple, pared-back and down-to-earth masterpiece''  \u003c\/b\u003eJames Rebanks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''We listen to them like something caught on the wind ... so moving and so strangely beckoning''  \u003c\/b\u003eNicci Gerrard, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''[Among] the year''s most pleasing books''  \u003c\/b\u003eRishi Dastidar, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Engrossing and humbling and quietly revelatory''  \u003c\/b\u003eMax Porter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Fascinating ... I was riveted''\u003c\/b\u003e  Lydia Davis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Like standing outside an open window on a warm summer evening and listening to a piece of contemporary history''  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLänstidningen\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIt is an unlikely subject for a bestseller. Yet in Sweden, the voices that have come from this ordinary little village have become like an existential meditation on what it is to be alive, to be human\u003c\/b\u003e, creatures living in time while the river runs on and wolves howl in the woods ... \u003cb\u003eIts specificity allows it to be universal\u003c\/b\u003e. ... Garrulous, taciturn, gossipy, warm-hearted, reserved or matter-of-fact, a character speaks and then they slip quietly away ... \u003cb\u003ewe listen to them like something caught on the wind\u003c\/b\u003e ... \u003cb\u003eWhy is this so moving and so strangely beckoning? I think precisely because \u003ci\u003eOsebol\u003c\/i\u003e bears witness to ordinary lives\u003c\/b\u003e. It gives us, unmediated, the voices of people who are usually unheard and invites us to pay attention to small things. It's also a book ... about the many meanings of home ... what it is to put down roots and belong ... \u003cb\u003eCompelling\u003c\/b\u003e -- Nicci Gerrard * Observer *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTransporting \u003c\/b\u003e... It is particular in its focus on one place ... and universal in its reminders that nothing stays the same. \u003cb\u003eYou feel as though you're in among them\u003c\/b\u003e -- Michael Kerr * Sunday Telegraph (Books of the Year) *\u003cbr\u003eThe year's most pleasing books have been those that \u003cb\u003edelivered the most unexpected delights\u003c\/b\u003e. Marit Kapla's \u003ci\u003eOsebol \u003c\/i\u003e(Allen Lane) renders the oral history of a small Swedish village since 1945 into verse. \u003cb\u003eA variety of voices form a symphonic whole ruminating on seasons passing, people leaving and a way of life almost disappearing\u003c\/b\u003e -- Rishi Dastidar * Guardian (Books of the Year) *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fugue in many voices\u003c\/b\u003e ... Osebol comes to life as the book progresses, like a dusty mosaic splashed with water ... [In] sudden shifts of tone, the book\u003cb\u003e catches the rhythm of life itself \u003c\/b\u003e... \u003ci\u003eOsebol\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a magnificent success; it is hard to imagine it better, or even different - it exists on its own terms. Kapla is a magician. \u003c\/b\u003eHow can she be called 'the author' when not a word is hers? But it was she who crafted it, weighing themes and balancing light and shade ...\u003cb\u003e The translator Peter Graves has miraculously maintained the original rhythm - or perhaps he has smelted Swedish phrases into English and forged a new one \u003c\/b\u003e...\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThe book conjures the Welsh notion of \u003ci\u003ehiraeth\u003c\/i\u003e, that soul-deep longing for the landscape of home\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003emesmerizing \u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOsebol \u003c\/i\u003eis a song of the ages\u003c\/b\u003e -- Sara Wheeler * TLS *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEngrossing and humbling and quietly revelatory\u003c\/b\u003e -- Max Porter\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOsebol\u003c\/i\u003e is a kind of \u003cb\u003esimple, pared-back and down-to-earth masterpiece\u003c\/b\u003e. I suspect that \u003cb\u003ecenturies from now it will be read and loved \u003c\/b\u003efor the glimpse it gives into the lives of \"ordinary\" people in this moment in time. \u003cb\u003eThere aren't many books I am jealous of, and wish I had written ... but I really wish I had written this\u003c\/b\u003e. I hope a lot of people read it and understand just how brilliant it is -- James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOsebol \u003c\/i\u003eis a \u003cb\u003efascinating \u003c\/b\u003eand revealing immersion in another culture and landscape.  \u003cb\u003eI was riveted by these life stories of young and old\u003c\/b\u003e, especially the accounts of those who remember how things used to be -  of picking berries in the forest and sharing the potato harvest. \u003cb\u003eA wonderful read\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lydia Davis, author of Essays and Essays Two\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThey speak of the forest, the bridge, the church, the river and the road, as if drawing a map \u003c\/b\u003e... In 2016 and 2017, Kapla, who grew up in Osebol, interviewed almost every adult in the village, ranging in age from 18 to 92 ... [she] \u003cb\u003etakes a poet's approach\u003c\/b\u003e, attending to the rhythms of thought and breaking the natural phrase as if breaking a surface. \u003cb\u003eHer translator, Peter Graves, more than rises to the challenge\u003c\/b\u003e this presents. He has found a register in English - both offhand and choral - that brings the voices together without letting them merge ... \u003cb\u003ethese eight hundred sparse pages offer as much as a 19th-century novel: a looming past and destabilised present, sweethearts and lonely hearts, casualties and entrepreneurs, grand plans, quiet satisfactions, and a fair amount of settling and enduring\u003c\/b\u003e ... Each memory sits within the rest and moves us towards the speaker's core -- Lavinia Greenlaw * London Review of Books *\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732515729751,"sku":"9780141994499","price":14.24,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780141994499.jpg?v=1719997224","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/osebol-9780141994499","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}