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    Across the China Sea: A Novel
    Across the China Sea: A Novel
    Across the China Sea: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    Across the China Sea: A Novel

    Written by Gaute Heivoll

    Narrated by Alex Bloch

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the waning days of the German occupation of Norway, Karin and her husband move from Oslo to a tiny village in the south with their young son, the narrator. There they aim to live out their dream of caring for those who can't look after themselves. They have spent months building a modest house with rooms for patients, and it's soon filled with three adult men who are psychologically unstable-including Karin's uncle Josef, who suffered a head injury in a carriage accident-and five siblings whose parents have been declared unfit, and who are the subjects of much conversation in the village. This small and idiosyncratic community persists for nearly three decades.

    After his parents' deaths, the son returns to clean out this unusual home. The objects of his childhood retain a talisman-like power over him, and key objects-including an orange crate where he and his sister slept as infants, Josef's medal of honor, his mother's beloved piano, and many others-unlock vivid memories.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    TranslatorNadia Christensen
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781681687094
    Across the China Sea: A Novel

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    Reviews for Across the China Sea

    4.5/5

    16 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This stunningly atmospheric novel by prize-winning author Heivoll, set in a rural district of southern Norway, covers a period of roughly six decades, from the years of Nazi occupation to the 1990s. In 1994 the narrator, in his mid 60s, has returned to the family home following his mother’s death (his father died some years earlier) to shut the house and dispose of his parents’ belongings. In the 1940s, during the war, his parents had the house designed and constructed for a specific purpose: since both worked in a psychiatric hospital and were trained in the care of the mentally disabled, they built a house that would accommodate a small contingent of patients for whom they would provide long-term care in exchange for a regular government allowance to cover costs. So the house where the narrator grew up was a family home but also a small-scale asylum for patients whose infirmities ranged from mild to severe. Central to the narrator’s recollections of his childhood are five mentally disabled siblings, three boys and two girls, who come under his parents’ care. Heivoll’s novel is built around moments in time—sights, sounds, sensations—and major and minor life events that the narrator recalls, usually with fondness but occasionally with confusion, pain or regret. All the patients residing at the house, which include the narrator’s Uncle Josef, are regarded as family and treated as such. The narrator’s relationship with the five siblings—Lilly, Nils, Ingrid, Erling, Sverre—initially guarded, soon becomes a close and trusting bond, and develops into a crucial formative element of his life that extends beyond childhood and into adulthood. Heivoll the novelist draws each of his characters in astonishing detail and with striking empathy, emphasizing individual dignity and personal strengths and talents over bizarre or obsessive behaviours. At the close, Across the China Sea returns to the 1990s and we join the narrator as he says goodbye to people and things he has known for his entire life. The story is loosely structured and does not build to a conclusion or denouement as much as it draws us along with it as it reminds us that time changes all things and, eventually, everything passes out of existence. Gaute Heivoll, author of Before I Burn, has written another moving and haunting novel about memory in which the past leaves in indelible imprint on the present.
    • 5/5
      ”I was born in the autumn at the maternity clinic in Asker, and at first I slept in an old orange crate that once had been shipped across the China Sea. Papa had found the crate in the attic above the men’s unit along with old sedan chairs, straightjacket beds, and other paraphernalia from the past.”This is the story of an unusual upbringing. In 1994, a man is clearing out his boyhood home in Norway after the death of his mother when he finds the contract his father had signed in the waning days of WWII. His parents had agreed to care for five mentally disabled children. They also cared for three mentally disabled men, all “in a Christlike spirit of love.” A house was built to accommodate these desperate individuals, along with the family of four. They became an extended family.Heivoll writes in spare, poetic prose that maintained a feeling of melancholy throughout. Through beautiful poignant vignettes we learn of the normal interactions with these special individuals and what is possible when you let love lead the way. Even a tragedy that takes place some months after their arrival is handled with delicacy and love. Heivoll also creates a magnificent sense of place. I’ve never been to Norway but I have a picture in my mind now of the snowcapped peaks, deep green forests, and icy blue waters. The innocence of childhood, compassionate adults and the power of memory make this an outstanding novel and one that will remain with me for a long time. Very highly recommended.