Absolution

by Olaf Olafsson

Book Overview

In his spellbinding first novel, acclaimed Icelandic author Olaf Olafsson takes us inside the mind of a man haunted by the crime he willed half a century earlier. Expatriate businessman Peter Peterson... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679428917
• ISBN13: 9780679428916
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Read

I picked this up in Reykjavik at the end of a trip to Iceland. I had previously read other Icelandic authors to get a feel for the country and its people but was disappointed. This book was a great read. The translation was done by the author himself so the quality of the prose is even more remarkable. There are numerous flashbacks contained in chapters that usually run about four pages. It jumps back and forth from the 1940s and from Reykjavik to Copenhagen to New York. My daughter tried this book and found it tough to read at first because she didn't like the main character (he is not what one would call warm and cuddly). But she became engrossed with the book halfway through and was glad she stuck with it. I, on the other hand, loved it from the first page. I am about to order another book from this author and I can't wait till it arrives.

A compulsive reading

Peter Peterson is an embittered man. He is mistrustful towards his son Helgi and his daughter Gudrun because he thinks that they are after his money. Now an elderly man he is confronted with the memories of his life. He was brought up in the gentry quarter of Reykjavik, followed his first love to Copenhagen during the Second World War and then went to live to New York. Time and again he remembers what he calls his "little crime" but this remains a mystery until the end of the novel. Like a murderer compelled to visit the site of his crime because he feels that his first love was clouded by betrayal and a harrowing revenge which poisoned his soul for the rest of his life. Did Peter Petersen really betray anybody? Who was the victim of his revenge? Excellently written with a carefully engineered plot, the reader is pulled into the story - with its numerous flashbacks which are interwoven into the present day - until the very end.

Somewhat Touching

"For I fear death, I am afraid of the end, the nothingness and perplexity."Peter Peterson a wealthy businessman and wine connossieur from Iceland is tormented living out his last days in New York. Besides the fear that his undeserving children will acquire his estate, there is his repetitive obsession with a crime of passion he believes he committed sometime back in his youth in Denmark. This crime brings him constant nightmares and cold sweats in his awakening and sleeping hours for they never leave him.His constant companion is his Cambodian girlfriend who takes care of him, does all the chores and hardly leaves his side. This is a touching story that will keep Mr. Olafsson's fans on the brink of anxiety.Lovers of Olaf Olafsson should not miss this beautiful novel which I believe is his first book... Grab it now. And I would also like to recommend Walking Into The Night by the same author.Heather Marshall 2/3/04