Before I Burn: A Novel
Gaute Heivoll, 2010, (trans., 2013)
Greywolf Press
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781555976613
Summary
An international literary sensation about an arsonist on the loose in rural Norway and the young man haunted by the story.
In 1970s Norway, an arsonist targets a small town for one long, terrifying month. One by one, buildings go up in flames. Suspicion spreads among the neighbors as they wonder if one of their own is responsible.
But as the heat and panic rise, new life finds a way to emerge. Amid the chaos, only a day before the last house is set afire, the community comes together for the christening of a young boy named Gaute Heivoll. As he grows up, stories about the time of fear and fire become deeply engrained in his young mind until, as an adult, he begins to retell the story. At the novel’s apex the lives of Heivoll’s friends and neighbors mix with his own life, and the identity of the arsonist and his motivations are slowly revealed.
Based on the true account of Norway’s most dramatic arson case, Before I Burn is a powerful, gripping breakout novel from an exceptionally talented author. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 13, 1978
• Where—Finsland, Norway
• Education—Telemark College; University of Bergen;
University of Oslo
• Awards—Brage Prize; Tiden-prisen Prize
• Currently—lives in
Gaute Heivoll studied creative writing at Telemark College 2001/02, law at the University of Oslo and psychology at the University of Bergen. He has also worked as a teacher.
Heivoll has written poems, short stories and essays for newspapers and literary magazines and has been included in many anthologies. He has also conducted courses in creative writing in Norway and France and has worked as a literary critic in Norwegian newspapers.
He made his literary debut in 2002 with the short-story collection Liten dansende gutt. He recently published another story collection, Gordeau and other short-stories.
Books include Omar's Last Days (2003), Song of Youth (2005), Love poems at the river bottom (2006), and Before I Burn (2010), for which Heivoll received the Brage Prize.
Heivoll was also the recipient of the 2003 Tiden-prisen Prize. In 2006 he was the Norwegian representative to the Literary Festival Project Scritture Giovanni, and his short-story "Dr. Gordeau" was translated into English, German and italian. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Heivoll has written in this novel about identifiable people, though sometimes changing their names—and this high-risk strategy has been enormously worth the risk. It is existence itself—its mental and physical pains, its blood-lust offset by the many beauties of natural forms and natural affections—that is the writer's subject, not the nailing of particularities to persons.
Independent (UK)
(Starred review.) Reads like a top-tier crime story... The deadpan irony of the dialogue and fetishistic, but sympathetic, descriptions of the crimes are chilly and resonant, playing out provocatively against the first-person narrative.... A compulsively readable novel about identity and the increasingly blurred line between art and reality.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) A thrilling and poetic novel. In this dark and powerful examination of two mens obsessions, Hevioll's introspection and attention to detail are unparalleled. Fans of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City will appreciate the chilling true-crime angle, while Heivoll's dazzling prose will quickly enchant those unfamiliar with this Scandinavian writer. An absorbing story of compulsion, obsession, and the power of desire.
Booklist
(Starred review.) One of Norway's most famous writers investigates a strange series of fires not by examining the ashes, but by looking in the mirror. This is not a crime novel. Except for being labeled a novel, it's not even clear that this ambitious experiment by European best-seller Heivoll qualifies as anything less than the purest metafiction.... It's revealed early on that the narrator is well-acquainted with the real identity of the madman; he's just more interested in the question "why?" than whodunit.
Kirkus Reviews
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