Having reached about the half-way point of the novel during this morning’s commute, I can see why Per Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses won the IMPAC award and secured a berth on so many best-of-2007 lists.

Almost every page features a line or paragraph embedded with a truth you didn’t know you already knew. And it effects its low-key enlightenment without serving up a side-order of sanctimony that usually accompanies “wisdom.”

The above makes the book sound worthy, slightly dull. But it’s not, partly because the prose (thanks to translator Anne Born) is as fresh and transparent as glacier meltwater (subtle reference to the book’s Norwegian setting).

And it’s also a mystery story, in which various disappearances and re-appearances still remain tantalisingly up in the air at this point

More when I have the chance/time/will-power…