#BlogTour- ‘The Courier’ by Kjell Ola Dahl

Today is my spot on the blog tour organised by Anne Cater of  Random Things for ‘The Courier’ by Kjell Ola Dahl from Orenda Books

About the Book…

The international bestselling godfather of Nordic Noir takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in a stunning standalone thriller.

`A masterclass in plotting, atmosphere and character that finely balances shocking twists’ The Times

`Utterly convincing‘ Publishers Weekly

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo.

In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself.

Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz.

In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Ase, who helped Ester get to Sweden.

Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire. And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo.

He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return?

Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

Written with Dahl’s trademark characterization and elegant plotting, ‘The Courier’ sees the hugely respected godfather of Nordic Noir at his best, as he takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in an exceptional, shocking thriller.

Exceptional and shocking are absolutely the words that I would choose to describe ‘The Courier’-also I would add that Orenda has done it again with another superbly translated work.

Opening in 2015 with Turid finally locating a piece of jewellery that she has spent years looking for, the book that rewinds time to 1942 and the shocking removal of resistance member Ester’s father from their family business. Ester manages to break back into the family apartment to find it completely stripped of all items of value and runs to her friend Ase, who lives with her baby daughter,Turid .

After arranging passage for Ester to Sweden, Ase is murdered and her husband, Gerhard is blamed. He is thought to have died in a fire before he is caught or can reclaim Turid from her grandparents, yet miraculously turns up 25 years later, keen to rekindle his relationship with his daughter…but why fake his death, who is still chasing after him and who killed Ase?

Using the bracelet as a central motif threaded through ‘The Courier’, Kjell Ola Dahl creates an intricate and beautifully balanced story paradoxically illuminating the darkness of the Second World War. The paranoia and suspicion which falls on everyone leaves you constantly on edge and the short, staccato sentences add to the immediacy of the plot development as it flips back and forth between the 1940’s and 60’s. The entire book is so beautifully constructed that you cannot see, Wizard of Oz-like, the curtained creator’s hands behind it ;as a result the characters spring larger than life from the page. And oh, that ending….

It is a work par excellence throwing shade and nuance into a period of history which has haunted humanity-and I genuinely hope that it continues to do so because ‘never again’ is a refrain for all people, now and forever. The horrors of sudden disappearances, living life in fear and transportation resulting in death in concentration camps are recorded and remembered in stories for very good reason. Families were irreperably torn apart never to be remade, but hope is the eternal remnant of Pandora’s Box, gifted to us to challenge the evils let loose on the world.

My heartfelt thanks to Anne and Karen at Orenda for my gifted copy of ‘The Courier’.

About the Author…

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjovik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frolich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.

Don Bartlett lives with his family in a village in Norfolk. He completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbo and Karl Ove Knausgard. He has previously translated The Consorts of Death and Cold Hearts in the Varg Veum series.

Twitter @ko_dahl

@OrendaBooks

@annecater