“The Fish House is a book you remember after you read it. And thereby its Norwegian author too become immortal”
Book of the Week, Lidové Noviny, Czech Republic
“A good fisherman has to think like a fish. Stein Torleif Bjella has written a small novel, which in a beautiful, sober way measures the depth between two men in a wooden boat … [The Fish House] explores longing, pride, separation, feelings of inadequacy, and everything in between in an incredibly original way. The cabin’s microcosmos works like an entryway into a far bigger world than what the Storsenn Lake contains, and through its quiet, sharp, humorous and thoughtful prose, little by little life shines through the otherwise murky water beneath Jon and Ivar”
Simon Baastrup, Weekendavisen, Denmark
“a wry story of loneliness and the painful process of trying to come closer to others … very funny … Bjella has full command of his material, and it’s precisely the concreteness and the simplicity that makes this book profound … It’s absorbing to read about how the wind changes direction, about cranes and lambs, and about the cluster of aspen trees on the northern end of the lake. Above all it’s a pure joy to read details regarding the rowing boat and the setting of fishing nets … this novel feels like a good place to be … Bjella here manages to create something fresh and deeply human with relatively simple means. That is an accomplishment.”
Jonas Hansen Meyer, NRK Bok
“The most impressive and warmly humorous debut I have ever reviewed … It’s not often you come across so much humour, warmth and wisdom … The book finds its way to a place in me I had forgotten exists, a place that, using a bit of naïve goodwil, l could call the soul … I am tempted to hand out six stars, and I’m an idiot for not doing it. But next time, Bjella. Next time.”
Steinar Brandslet, Stavanger Aftenblad, 5/6 stars
“… by God, Ivar is quite a character, and my new hero … It’s quite a trial for Jon, but for the reader it’s a pure delight … It’s a joy to read … one can imagine him [Jon] as a kind of Jon Fosse of the mountains … But in Bjella’s book there is much more juice and life … one can only be delighted that the musician Bjella has started fishing in the genre of the novel”
Bjørn Ivar Fyksen, Klassekampen
“A tender treat from Bjella … Life, art and fish are the themes in Stein Torleif Bjella’s first novel … The book is a treat for anyone with a weakness for fishing with nets, old traditions and the Halling dialect. And for Bjella’s typical mix of melancholy, humour and vulnerability … The Fish House has lots of charm: The silent, vulnerable Jon and the direct, talkative Ivar make a fun, odd couple. The two men talk about the important things in life. Apart from fish, the topics are the art of living, music and love … The Fish House is a tender first novel about loneliness and longing, about lived life and life yet to be lived.”
Maya Troberg Djuve, Dagbladet
“The prose works brilliantly, and practically unites story with description of place and characters … The Fish House doesn’t challenge the genre of the novel. This is no experimental novel that expands the possibilities of the genre. But it is a tight, beautiful story … A lot of the charm of the novel can be found in the conversations between the two men. The uncle is assertive and provocative. Jon ducks his head and makes notes. And then there is something underneath the conversation that Jon can’t quite get his head around. It makes for a special twist at the end of the story. It turns the story around and puts everything we’ve read in a new light … [The Fish House] feels fresh, intimate and real in its portrait of place and people. The reader doesn’t meet a big city like any other, but a place which is so to speak lifted up and portrayed as if for the first time”
Atle Christiansen, Aftenposten
“A wonderful first novel: Stein Torleif Bjella has written a novel unlike most others this autumn … This is a tight chamber drama, packed with humour and unpleasantries. But even though Ivar is a real bastard in the way he subjects his nephew to the most degrading situations, it’s just as much the main character who comes across as pathetic. The younger man Jon is indolent and incapable of acting, but that’s not the case with this short and concise book. It plays with both the traditional male gender role and rural hipsters, but it is serious at bottom and there is – as it turns out – a purpose to it all.”
Ole Jacob Hoel, Adresseavisen, 5/6 stars
“Stein Torleif Bjella doesn’t fish around to win the reader’s favour, but we’re most certainly hooked … Bjella writes with great insight and sympathy with his characters. This small novel is tightly composed and has no dull points … [the prose] is both efficient and poetic … There is a twist in the book that I will refrain from saying anything about, but even though I now know about this, I gladly re-read this, several times. That’s how it is when there’s joy to be found on every page”
Ingvild Bræin, Dag og Tid
