“A hard, merciless, bitter book, yet pulsating with life, [Ingeborg’s Tollak] portrays a Norway that is distant and pervaded by the chill of unease, different from the idyllic postcard image, where love and ferocity cause the beating of the same heart”.
Angelo Ferracuti, la Lettura – Corriere della Sera, Italy
“Renberg is a highly skilled narrator, who page by page cultivates an intense anticipation that something will happen, while simultaneously crafting a character that is difficult to forget – a desperate soul with a strong inner energy … Ingeborg’s Tollak is a testament to rare expressive power in writing.”
Santa di Salvo, Il Mattino, Italy
“Some novels hide a magnet, which is why it is almost impossible to break away from them before finishing them. And so for Ingeborg’s Tollak, a very black thriller, whose darkness coincides with the protagonist Tollak”.
Laura Pezzino, Vanity Fair Italia, Italy
“In this book there is nothing to guess, nothing unexpected and shocking, but it is not a mystery and it does not want to be. And it is precisely in this inevitability of events that the reflection that emerges from this reading can find value, the understanding of the dynamics that underlie an abandonment to a steep and stony slope along which the characters of this story roll without stopping, colliding stones, branches, wounding, bleeding.”
Sarah Savioli, Robinson – la Repubblica, Italy
“The plot has all the ingredients measured in power relations: aggression and tenderness, shadow and light, pain and pleasure. A skilful neo-romanticism captivates the reader with skill, starting from the harshness of the protagonist who leverages the pedal of emotion, imposing himself with an ambiguous point of view on the events.”
Marta Morazzoni, il Sole 24 ore – Domenica, Italy
“What Renberg does with this story is masterful (… ) With Tollak, Tore Renberg has created the most complex and collapsing character in any novel this year”
6/6 stars, Bok365
“Technically brilliant (…) an incredibly strong portrait and an intense family drama”
NRK
“A furious, uncomfortable and intense novel from one our best storytellers (…) An energy bomb of a novel that ought to be read in one sitting, leaving the reader astonished, upset and wondering (…) an intense story with truly powerful language”
6/6 stars, VG
“This compact, thrillerlike novel about love, violence and protest must be amongst the best things Tore Renberg has ever written”
Aftenposten
“The strongest book this fall (…) a dark family saga, a piece of cultural criticism, a beautiful story of love – and a thriller! Run out and buy it at once!”
6/6 stars, Nettavisen
“Renberg makes it shine – and shine … The novel has characters you believe in, excellent correspondence between prose, ideas and pace, and smouldering suspense until the very last page”
Dagsavisen
“A brilliant portrait of an antihero … a book that oozes of modern storytelling art … Ingeborg’s Tollak easily finds its place in Renberg’s row of modern classics and is absolutely one of this autumn’s literary peaks!”
Framtida.no
