Friday, September 16, 2011

De gales hus by Karin Fossum - being crazy is not that bad, or what?


My Rate: ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠ (9/10 Skulls)

Original Title: De gales hus
Written by: Karin Fossum
Genre: A novel
Written for: Adult
Pages: 371
Publisher:
Cappelen Damm
Published: 2002
My copy: 2002 (Hardcover)
I read it: September 05 - September 13, 2011
Source: Bought

Couldn't find any English description of this book so I try to explain it as best as I can.


When life becomes rough and difficult....

Hajna is a very young and miserable woman. She runs through a window, wishing to kill herself but she fails and survives. After the incident she is forced to stay at a place/house called Varden, a home for people who for some reason doesn't feel like they belong to the society. They are outsiders who isn't sure how to handle the life or what they want with life. In the meantime they're staying at Varden to figure things out.

After trying to take her life by running through the window and after surviving, Hajna tries to slowly kill herself by starving. Several days before coming to Varden she hadn't eaten anything and she doesn't eat at that place either. She wants to die slowly. At least that's what she thinks. What surprises her is that she is happy to stay there. She likes the people around her, at least most of them. They mean a lot to each other and they try to support each other as much as they are able to.

Karin Fossum is most known for her crime novels but this is a novel but still she impress me the way she describes people - inside and the outside. I get to know her characters very well 'cause she makes them so visual.

De gales hus has been standing unread on my shelf for too long. Don't ask me why. But better late then never, right? It's a warm and fun (it's a bit wrong to call this book fun, if you know what I mean but at many parts it made me smile. And even though I finished reading it days ago I still think about it now and then. It's a nice book to think about. Especially if you think life is hard you must remember that there's always someone who has it worse then you and you realize that your own life maybe is not that bad at all... This is a book to fall in love with in a strange way.

If I would get the job to translate the title in English I would call it House of fools, The Crazy House or something like that. You probably get the point...

Highlights: I love Fossums writing style. She is good at describing people's feelings and situations. I sympathize with them . She makes me feel what her characters feel.

Downhill: I wish the book could last longer 'cause I loved the main character. She's fun and strange at the same time.


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