In Women In Translation month and to celebrate the writer on her ninety-third birthday, we highlight this summer’s grave environmental concerns and draw your attention to a beautiful short novel by one of Norvik’s most skilful, creative and prescient female authors. Wolf Run is a mesmerising story about man’s evolving relationship with the natural world and a moving portrait of ageing within a mature and happy marriage, as well as a cri de coeur for the environment. The book is forthcoming this autumn with Norvik Press. Here is a short excerpt.
The narrator and his wife have been on a fishing trip from their home in Hälsingland to nearby Norway and are bringing their catch home for the freezer:
When we got home the smell of the fire had reached all the way there and it wafted in when we opened the windows. They were already saying on the news that they might be evacuating Kårböle. But what about the animals? Would they escape? Would they know which direction to run, or would they suffocate from smoke inhalation? Burn up.
I pictured a fox running out of the woods, badly scorched. Went outside and looked up toward the ridge. Nothing. No wreath of smoke. But what about those parcels of forest land around the Igel lakes that had been my dad’s and granddad’s. I needed to check on them.
So there I was sitting under a spruce, and if it wasn’t the moment of truth it was the hour. Or the summer. I wasn’t the only one who believed that everything was good and would only get better. But right now, as this hot July drew to a close, I reached the point of realization – I had been wrong. Things weren’t getting better.
Norvik Press previously published Ekman’s splendid Women and the City tetralogy, comprising Witches’ Rings, The Spring, The Angel House, and City of Light, appearing for the first time in English translations by Sarah Death and Linda Schenck. Writer and critic Paul Binding reviewed Ekman’s quartet here https://norvikpress.com/2021/06/16/kerstins-quartet/ and Linda Schenck offered her brilliant perspective on working on Ekman’s novels here: https://norvikpress.com/2021/06/02/reading-and-re-reading-kerstin-ekman-on-a-century-of-womens-lives/
Norvik Press also published Rochelle Wright’s English translation of Ekman’s poem Childhood, in a beautiful edition with original photographs kindly provided by the author.
More details about the books and links to order copies can be found here: https://norvikpress.com/books/?filter_authors=kerstin-ekman&query_type_authors=or
Norvik Press is proud to be working on the first English translation of Wolf Run, bringing another major work by Kerstin Ekman to English-language readers. We are delighted to continue our long-standing engagement with Ekman’s writing and look forward to sharing more about the translation, its publication, and the people behind it in the months ahead. Stay tuned for further updates.