«A great novel on emigration and longing … [Hoem] conjures up his family story in a brilliant way … The book is base don true stories, but the phenomenal storyteller Hoem imagines their lives … one of those books that are hard to put down until the very last page is read. Hoem tells of the life and thoughts of young Eilert in a quiet and very credible way. The reader learns to know and love the characters.”
****** 6/6 stars, Bergens Tidende
“This novel is fiction on a very high level and therefore 100 % trustworthjy … That Hoem is capable of writing both poetry and drama has been demonstrated in his previous works … And his prose has probably never been as poetically clear, balanced and effortless as in his latest books. I have already shamelessly used the word ‘old-fashioned’ in a positive sense, not just to praise the novel, but also to put the novel and its writer where they belong, among our great novels and our great storytellers. … These novels can almost be seen as Hoem’s answer to Knausgård’s My Struggle, carried out in a different way, but probably even more empathetic, intense and alive”
Aftenposten, Books of the year, 2015
“Edvard Hoem manages to make a tiny house on the prairie into an important part of Norwegian history … Haymaker in Heaven and Your Brother on the Prairie will live on as brilliant works of art in the history of Norwegian literature … a fascinating, knowledgeable and engaging family saga, which is also the story of Norway as a nation … This quiet, poetic story is art of high quality. Hoem’s ability to keep the readers’ attention for 480 pages is impressive: I wasn’t bored for a single second … another triumph in Edvard Hoem’s incredible oeuvre”
****** (5/6 stars), VG
“Elevates both the western novel and the prairie to a surprising literary level … Usually looked upon as an endless grassy plain, the prairie is in Hoem’s novel transformed into an Eldorado of smells and colours. The flora, the different tree types and the abundant animal life is given shape and colour, as is the sky and the changes in the weather … Hoem never attempts to make things like more idyllic … the steady grind and joy of everyday life has an inner drama which is brought to the reader in sensous an exciting prose”
Dagsavisen
“A magical book of life on the prairie … shimmers with sophisticated storytelling on the highest level … Despite the low key prose, it creates a powerful inner tension in the text and often offers a purely magical read … a literary universe with a multitude of characters, events, different environments, lyrical descriptions of nature, great hopes, love and a lot of sorrow. And the novel doesn’t let go until it fades out in the small town of Molde and the vast plains of Alberta sometime in the autumn of 1912. I actually think this new novel surpasses its predecessor, Haymaker in Heaven, which says a lot. The bittersweet undertone that carries the first novel is very much present here too. But in the prairie novel, it is balanced towards the rich promises of a better life, which all the time shines on the horizon.”
Romsdals Budstikke
“It’s a joy to read Your Brother on the Prairie. The prose is sober, and the characters are portrayed from without by an objective narrator. It is first and foremost through the characters’ actions and ways of reacting that we learn to know them. At the same time, the descriptions are so sensuous and lush that this reviewer is tempted to clear her own piece of land and started cultivating the earth in the wilderness”
Vårt Land
“A poetic and sensuous book about Norwegians settling on the prairie in the alte 19th century … Hoem has once more proven himself as a great writer”
VG, Books of the year 2015
