“These three dozen stories and vignettes by the venerable Norwegian writer range from bleak to darkly comic . . . [Everything Like Before] features mainly spare prose exploring the distances and conflicts between people linked by blood, marriage, or circumstance . . . [Kjell Askildsen] is a fine craftsman who offers lighter moments amid the Nordic gloom and an unrelenting intelligence.”
Kirkus Review, US, Starred Review
“The lengthier works shine brightest, among them “A Sudden Liberating Thought,” in which a Beckett-like series of encounters between two old men becomes a discourse on euthanasia; and “Mardon’s Night,” where three people’s thoughts and actions blur in enigmatic blocks of text…. this definitive volume brims with stellar material.”
Publishers Weekly, US
“Deftly translated by Séan Kinsella, this selection of odd, austere yet transfixing stories from various points of Askildsen’s long career showcases his stylistic verve and his relentless scrutiny of human frailties and absurdities . . . It is hard not to be entranced by his stripped-back prose, or the original way in which he depicts the agony of empty lives and the trials of everyday existence. ”
Malcom Forbes, Minneapolis Star Tribune, US
“Kitchens, decks, doorways, sidewalks, restaurants, and bars are charged with significance as spaces where characters negotiate relationships and appraise their lives. Mundane objects that carry emotional weight—raincoats, hair ribbons, cups of coffee—bring the stories alive . . . In the short stories of Everything Like Before, loneliness, despair, and longing are described with devastating nuance.”
Rebecca Hussey, Foreword Reviews, US
“[Kjell Askildsen] is a consummate chronicler of contradictory, quicksilver emotions and impulses. There is in his work a careful calibration of his characters’ inner lives, of small dramas in no way empty of incident, whose ultimate crux is the desultory, dangerous weight of time.”
Ben Goldman, Words Without Borders
