Kjell Askildsen, Seán Kinsella (Translator)

Everything Like Before

Stories

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Summary

'Askildsen's dry, absurd humour is not unlike that of Beckett... His short stories are packed with irony, and the dialogue is sharp and expressive' TLS

Spare, taut and told with flashes of pitch-black humour, the short stories of Norwegian master Kjell Askildsen capture all the strangeness of modern existence. In this selection of tales, spanning the whole of his brilliant career, unnerving encounters occur, lonely individuals try to connect, families and relationships are fractured, and we are confronted by the fragility and absurdity of life.

'Full of compelling strangeness. Lives surge through a few brittle pages, suppressed loves and resentments threaten to erupt' Independent

Reviews

Askildsen's dry, absurd humour is not unlike that of Beckett... His short stories are packed with irony, and the dialogue is sharp and expressive
TLS

About the author

Kjell Askildsen

Kjell Askildsen (b. 1929) is widely recognized as one of the pre-eminent Norwegian writers of the twentieth century and among the greatest short-story authors of all time. He entered the literary scene in 1953 with the collection of short stories From Now On I'll Take You All the Way Home, which received glittering reviews in the Oslo press, but was banished from the library in his home town, for immorality. It was not until 1987, after the publication of A Sudden Liberating Thought, that he received critical acclaim.

Askildsen has received numerous literary awards, among them are: the Norwegian Critics' Prize (1983 and 1991), the Brage Honorary Prize (1996), the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize (2009), and in 1991, he was nominated for the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature.

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