Out Stealing Horses (Review)

Out Stealing Horses (Review)

his was another of the CD’s we listened to on our summer vacation drive (a CD can make the miles go by but I fear they will go the way of VHS soon enough). The wife picked this one out. So we listened.

The story told starts at what should be the end – Trond Sander is an older man, ready to live out the remains of his life in contemporary times out in the Norwegian boonies. But then he encounters a man who grew up with him when he was a child, back when the Nazis invaded during World War Two. And this chance meeting, decades later and at such long ops, opens Trond’s old wounds and replays his childhood.

And so we learn of Troad’s father (who moved away to harvest wood with his son, leaving a wife and daughter in the city). And how they interacted with the village, the timber harvest, cutting grass for hay, all those country things. There are also memories of the Germans and the amazing (and very realistic) event when a family is discovered harboring a spy. But all that is secondary – the real story comes from Trond’s relationship with Jon, a boy from the village, and how after they’d gone out stealing horses, the tragedy that unfolds and the repercussions it brings.

It was a good story – not something that had me at the edge of my seat (and a good thing, since I was belted in). No, it’s a story about the childhoods that form us. Very sweet. Very sad. I’m glad we listened to it.

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