Kim Leine: Kalak

[Flower]

The Danish author Kim Leine has written 3 books. His first one is called "Kalak" and holds such themes as Greenland, religion, abuse and postcolonialism.



Part of my review:

Kim Leine’s highly acclaimed and powerful debut “Kalak” from 2007 was written from a strong urge for penance. “It was one of those stories that just needed telling”, he says. The book was written in the traditional style of a novel, but is categorised as a remembrance novel as it is actually a biography. Point in fact, the main character has the author’s real name in the story.
Born in Norway into a religious family, Kim learns from a very early age to fear God. So five years later, when his father fled a small isolated community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in search of self-realization in Copenhagen, Kim is left in a suffocating world of angst with his mother. At the age of 16 he runs away from home on his own quest for independence, hoping to escape an ever watching and punitive God.

In Greenland there is no right to have ownership of land, and therefore the people are depended solely upon the outcome of their catch or their wages. This breeds a culture with no roots. The meaning of owning a home, the saying “a man’s home is his castle” certainly do not exist there. The dependency on what nature brings for food and the unstable force of nature means that you can be rich one season, only to be thrown out of your home and into the streets the next. Therefore you learn to survive without being attached to material things. You learn to live in the moment, from hand to mouth. A way of life which resonates with Kim since he no longer has any roots. He has begun to give in to his impulses of wanting a painless life by taking drugs.

Read the rest at Book Reviews | Bookbabble - book news and podcast for booklovers everywhere!

[Flower]

At the moment Im reading Kim Leine's second book "Valdemarsdag" about his grandfather, whom Leine discovered was a murderer. The book is a very intense thriller drama and between the action you get to read the real witnesses reports from the police files.

This Danish author so deserves to be translated into English, German and French. At the moment his books are translated into Swedish and Norweigan. Interest has been shown from the German and English speaking publishing world though. When news of this arrives, I will let you know.