I loved this book. The original novel was written in nynorsk and is a classic of Norwegian literature, but I can’t believe it loses much in translation. The short, ninety-six page novella is quite positively overflowing with poetry.
For anyone put off by that, don’t be — I read the whole thing in a few hours and couldn’t put it down.
The story starts with a young girl in a small rural community whose world is rocked by the arrival of a new girl to her village. The girls’ tentatively burgeoning friendship is electric with the magic of youth and possibility and uncertainty, and in its messy, non-sensical intensity, provides a painfully honest rendition of young attachment.
After this, things only get weirder, but if you’re concerned about getting lost, don’t be. The story is unendingly compelling, the magic realism (for want of a better term) an effortless texture to the strangeness of the setting. The Ice Palace itself, when it finally consumes us, is a masterpiece of alien intelligence and cosmic beauty which puts any Lovercraftian monster to shame.
“The pine needles stretch their tongues and sing an unfamiliar nocturnal song. Each tongue is so small that it cannot be heard; together the sound is so deep and powerful that it could level the hills if it wished.” The Ice Palace
A vast, majestic book squeezed into an impossibly small story that will suck you, along with its young protagonist, deep into the incomprehensible vastness at the heart of all things. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.
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Buy on kindle £4.99
Buy hardback from Blackwells £6.49
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