Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes

Stories

By: Per Petterson

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

Young Arvid Jansen lives on the outskirts of Oslo. It's the early '60s; his father works in a shoe factory, and his Danish mother works as a cleaner. Arvid has nightmares about crocodiles and still wets his bed at night, but slowly he begins to understand the world around him. Vivid images accompany each new event: A photo of his mother as a young woman makes him cry as he realizes how time passes, and the black car that comes to collect his father on the day Arvid's grandfather dies reminds him of the passing of his bullfinch. And then, one morning, his teacher tells his class to pray because a nuclear war is looming.

©1987 Forlaget Oktober, Oslo (P)2015 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

"Shot through with a tender, nostalgic quality...Petterson brings the book to an unexpectedly moving conclusion." ( Financial Times)

"This is a small book that packs a punch.... Petterson's style...is stripped like a bleached Wallander landscape and leaves you no place to hide from Arvid's all-too-vivid reality. You are gripped by a few simple words." ( Independent on Sunday)

"The talent has been there from the very beginning.... The delicacy and simplicity of Petterson's vision of childhood also suggests Carver's master Chekhov.... If you haven't read Per Petterson at all...it's quite possible you'll want to read everything he has written. If you are already an admirer you won't want to miss this one." ( The Sydney Morning Herald)

Shocked

I love how he craftily expresses human thoughts and experiences- nevertheless I was shocked when the profanity entered. I will not finish this book.