Norwegian by Night

First Line: It is summer and luminous.


When you're in your eighties and a widower, the last thing you want to do is to move from your home in New York City to a new place with your granddaughter and her Norwegian husband in Oslo, Norway. But as Sheldon Horowitz knows, sometimes the last thing you

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want to do is the only thing you can do. He's lonely and wants to be with his granddaughter. His granddaughter has seen signs of dementia in her beloved grandfather and wants to keep him close to her.

What neither one of them could possibly predict is an act of incredible violence that leaves a little motherless boy in old Sheldon Horowitz's care. Now the old man and the little boy are on the run from everyone who's chasing them, and we can only pray that the killer isn't the one who finds this odd pair first.

This is a book that defies categorization. It's part thriller, part police procedural, part road trip, part commentary on aging/relationships/dementia-- and it has flashes of comedy throughout. When I began reading this book, I was worried about Korean War veteran Sheldon Horowitz because I was remembering when my own grandfather lived with me. By the time I finished reading Norwegian By Night, I had a big smile on my face and wished that we could all be as demented as Derek B. Miller's main character.

This is a book that has so much to say-- and it manages to say everything in a rather concise manner. What this debut novelist says in 300 pages, most other writers would take at least twice the space. Miller never lets his foot off the gas-- this tale moves swiftly and surely from beginning to end. If you're the type of reader who wants a fast-paced book that starts at Point A and leads directly to Point B, you might want to give Norwegian By Night a miss. From time to time, the narrative wanders off onto dark alleys and narrow country lanes, as Sheldon visits the Korean and Vietnam Wars, memories of his wife and son... and as we learn a bit about the background of the silent little boy Sheldon is trying to keep safe. These diversions add a richness to the story that it cannot live without; they are the life's blood of Miller's characters. It takes an incredible amount of skill to be able to introduce these flashbacks and themes and not have them slow down the pace of the story, and Miller accomplishes it with ease.

The element of the chase keeps the story's pace flowing quickly, while those diversions add dimension to both characterization and to the themes of aging and regret that run throughout the book. And when the action gets too scary or one of the themes gets too dark, Sheldon Horowitz is there to say or do something that will make us laugh.

This book fed my mind on so many levels! It's been a long time since I've finished a book with such a huge smile on my face, wanting to invite a character home to live with me. Should we all be as crazy as Sheldon!

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Sheldon Horowitz's wife Mabel kept telling him in her last months that he had dementia. He certainly often confuses the past with the present, and sometimes it is hard to work out whether snippets of the past really happened or whether Sheldon just wanted them to happen that way.

His trek through

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Norway to what he sees as safety with a seven year old whose language he can't speak has a really cinematic quality; by that I mean I think this story would make a great film.

Sheldon lives with a lot of guilt. He couldn't tell Mabel, or anyone else what he did in the Korean War. He told her he had a clerk's job in the Marines, and he hid from her the medals he brought back. Similarly he feels responsible for his son Saul's death in the Vietnam war, believing he goaded him into a second tour of duty.

There's a lot to like about NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT. There's humour, but also some pretty serious assessment of the impact of war on those who fight as well as those left behind.

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Derek Miller is an American (though currently a resident of Oslo) and his novel is not exactly crime fiction (though there is a crime). It's one of those books that defies classification. But I recommend it wholeheartedly.


Sheldon Horowitz is a New York Jew, a man who has repaired watches all his

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life but can't quite keep time any longer. He's in his eighties and his memory is . . . well, let's say it's inventive. He has reluctantly gone to live with his granddaughter and her Norwegian husband in Oslo. The stories he tells about his experiences as a sniper in the Korean War don't seem to match historical fact and his granddaughter thinks it's a symptom of dementia. Either that, or he's seeking attention with weirdly logical illogic - or possibly both.

One afternoon, after his granddaughter and her husband have left the house, Sheldon hears a commotion in the apartment upstairs. This is not unusual; the Balkan immigrants living upstairs have had their arguments before, but this time it's different - more violent, more ominous. When he hears the woman come down the stairs, Shelden looks through the peephole and sees her hesitate on the landing, trapped between the rage of her husband and a suspicious car idling outside.

They did this with us, too, he thinks, looking through the peephole. And then the pity vanishes and is replaced by the indignation that lives just beneath the surface of his daily routines and quick retorts.

The Europeans. Almost all of them, at one time or another. They looked out their peepholes - their little fishy eyes staring out through bulging lenses, watching someone else's flight - as their neighbors clutched their children to their chests while armed thugs chased them through buildings as though humanity itself was being extinguished. Behind the glass, some were afraid, some felt pity, others felt murderous and delighted.
All were safe because of what they were not. They were not, for example, Jews.

(There's something wonderfully dry and disarming about that "for example" that somehow pulls the pin on the whole passage.)

He opens the door and sees she has a child clinging to her. He motions them inside. When the man starts to break down the door, the woman pushes the boy toward him and he hides with him in a closet as the violence continues. When it grows quiet, he finds the woman dead; the suspicious car prowls by as he thinks about what to do. He's afraid that if he goes to the authorities, they will think he's a doddering old fool and hand the boy over to his father. So he takes it upon himself to protect the child, leaving behind a quote from Huckleberry Finn, setting off on a journey while the police and his granddaughter try to figure out what's going on.

I was reminded of Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog, though only after the fact. Both Atkinson and Miller are able to take some aspects of crime fiction - violence and the ripple effect is has on the people around it, the balance between causality and sheer randomness, the way that past and present are layered together in a single identity, the narrative skill to keep momentum as the story weaves back and forth in time, the clarity of characters fully imagined. Like Atkinson, Miller is funny and touching and irreverent and yet respectful of his characters and his readers. He considers age and the toll that grief and guilt can take on a life, on the cultural differences between Norway and New York, the stresses that immigration brings to Scandinavian countries that have both a sense of social duty and inexperience with cultural difference; he writes about masculinity and the scars inflicted by war and even touches on Norway's treatment of Jews during the occupation and how much we erase from history.

Did I mention it's incredibly funny? It is - in a gentle, sardonic, life-affirming way. And when it takes off at a gallop you can't turn the pages fast enough. I suspect this will be on my top ten list for the year.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book. I'm very glad I read it.

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I'm not sure how I feel about this book, but there is no denying that it is very well-written and very memorable, although the subject matter, about war and war crimes, is very hard to read about. These crimes get described in the course of an exciting story about Sheldon, a Jewish American

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82-year-old Korean War veteran living with his daughter in Oslo. He witnesses domestic violence while peering through the door to his daughter's apartment, and decides to take a stand and try to hide the woman and her young son. All goes terribly wrong when the violent man returns, and Sheldon and the boy end up fleeing for their lives. The boy is Albanian and cannot understand Sheldon, and Sheldon cannot speak Norwegian. Sheldon may or may not have dementia, but he has a plan, and it makes for some very funny moments as they make their way to hoped-for safety. The characters are excellently drawn and the reader is rooting for them all the way. The war crime recollections are told through the memories of Sheldon and the Kosovan father of the boy. A very different kind of story, well told.

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This is a deeply moving and memorable novel draped around a classic thriller scaffolding, a novel that goes far beyond the scaffolding to examine issues of guilt, parenthood, Jewishness, war, age, manliness, and on and on and on. The basic structure is simple: witnesses to a horrible crime must

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flee the killers, and the police. That is made far more compelling by the fact that the witnesses are a very old man and a very young boy, and that both are foreigners with no common language, and with no knowledge of the language of the country in which they find themselves. Add in a charming young couple who are involuntarily involved, a truly horrifying chief villain with a shivery henchman, a likeable woman chief inspector, and some almost farcical side villains, and it all ticks along very nicely.

What adds the extra dimension is the central character, and his struggle with himself. Sheldon Horowitz is an 82-year old widowed Jewish watchmaker from New York, who has settled in Norway with his granddaughter (his only surviving relative) and her pleasant Norwegian husband. As the novel gets underway, Sheldon may or may not be suffering from dementia, may or may not have benn a military hero, and may or may not have pressured his son into actions that led to that son's death. Whatever he is, he is entirely clear about one thing -- he doesn't like Norway -- and he has no compunction about sharing that with his downtrodden granddaughter. He is also very funny, very perceptive, and, as we discover, very resourceful.

Through a series of circumstances Sheldon becomes the protector of a small boy from the Balkans who heard his mother's murder, and who is very much wanted by his mother's killer. Sheldon realizes that the murderer will be looking for them both, and that the police may well be doing the same. He heads off cross country with the boy, and along the way unravels many mysteries about himself. The suspense is strong in both stories -- will they escape? and what is the truth about Sheldon? It makes for a terrific novel. Add in a good deal of humor -- not ha-ha humor, except for Sheldon -- and a wonderful touch for characterization, and you have a really wonderful read. Like many other reviewers, I look forward to Mr. Miller's next novel.

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Norwegian by Night is the most original crime novel I’ve read this year, and I really enjoyed it. I fell in love with Sheldon Horowitz, an 82 year old American Jew, ex-Marine who fought in the Korean War, who recently moved to Oslo after his wife’s death. His story is sad, funny, and heroic.

The

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criminal element of the story involves Sheldon hiding a young boy and his mother after his mother was in a violent and loud argument in the apartment upstairs from his, but the crime is not the only centerpiece of the novel. It’s a novel about an old man who believes he’ll die soon and all of his memories (Sheldon, who suffers from dementia, feels very guilty about his son Saul’s death in the Vietnam War). It’s also a novel about wars and surviving after wars, and it’s a novel about being an outsider.

The characters feel very complete, even the younger characters like Sheldon’s granddaughter Rhea and the more minor police characters who track Sheldon and the young boy. The novel is an interesting mix of an adventure/escape story (Miller quotes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from time to time), memories of war and regrets, and crime. Sheldon is the most original character I’ve come across in my reading in a very long time.

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I have recently come to seek out the crime thrillers from Scandinavian authors. I had thought Stieg Larsson was the only one, but boy was I wrong! So imagine my surprise to find out that Derek B. Miller, author of Norwegian by Night, is an American and this is a debut novel. Friends, I am telling

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you, don't miss this!

Sheldon Horowitz is an 82 year old Jewish American who has just moved to Oslo after the death of his beloved wife. His granddaughter Rhea has previously married an Oslo native and now resides there. She convinces her grandfather not to remain alone in New York City by revealing that she and her husband are expecting Sheldon's great grandchild.

Sheldon was too young to fight in WWII, but he was profoundly shaped by patriotic emotions as he watched his older brother go off to war. He also was scarred by the horrors that emerged from the anti-Semitic attitudes of the Nazis, not to mention the apathy of the non-Jewish Europeans who did nothing to stop the slaughter of millions of Jews. When the Korean War broke out, Sheldon signed up and served his country with extraordinary bravery, though he did not see it as such, and kept his medals hidden from his wife, downplaying his war service if it ever came up. Rhea's father, the Horowitz' only son had been killed in Afghanistan shortly before Rhea was born.

A lot of this background information comes to us via Sheldon's thoughts and reminiscences, and he is hilarious. His expressions are rich with Jewish humor and self-deprecation, but his love and tenderness for his family as well as a strong sense of what is right and wrong comes through clearly.

So when he is home alone in Oslo and hears yet another huge fight between the couple upstairs, he goes to his front door to peer out when he hears footsteps clattering down the stairs. Amazingly it is the woman and he is shocked to see that she stops right at his door, looking back up the stairs and then out toward the street. "Run!" he shouts silently in his head, but when she doesn't he remembers the apathetic Europeans of the WWII era who did not open their doors when the Nazis came for their Jewish neighbors. Sheldon opens the door and the woman and a child rush in. They do not speak the same language, but Sheldon knows they must hide. Too soon a very angry man is pounding on the door. Sheldon hides the boy and himself but the woman makes it known that she will go talk to her husband. When the noise stops, Sheldon realizes that the man may come back for the boy and that they must get away and hide til he figures out what to do next.

The story is told not only from Sheldon's perspective, but from that of the police investigators, Rhea and her husband, and even the killers. Talk about an action-filled book! Sheldon's military training from the Korean War days kicks in and he and the boy are one step ahead of both the cops and the killers til the last page of the book. A poignant and moving story about aging, heroism and family, as well as a crime thriller. Really a good read, so let's be watching for Derek B. Miller's next work, whatever it might be! In the meantime, get Norwegian by Night and enjoy this novel!

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I read this while vacationing in Norway and highly recommend it. A great first novel from a writer that I hope to read more of in the future. The story centers around a American woman married to a Norwegian, who decides to move her widowed grandfather (a war veteran) from the U.S. to Oslo to live

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with her and her husband. It is a tough adjustment for the grandfather, who comes into his own when a crime occurs in their apartment complex and he rescues a young immigrant boy from a dangerous situation. The flashbacks (or are they fantasies) the grandfather has about his time in the military give the story a very interesting twist. A great read! (The fact that I visited the very neighborhood where much of the story takes place just added to the reading experience...the author did a great job of creating the atmosphere of the immigrant community.)

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Norwegian By Night is the story of a man, a man with a secret. At 82, Sheldon Horowitz has just buried his wife Mabel. His granddaughter, Rhea, has asked him to move to Norway to live with her and her husband, Lars. She doesn’t want him to be alone. Her grandmother has told her that he has the

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beginnings of dementia and she is concerned. He has no one left in New York, so finally, she convinces him to move with her to Oslo. Moving someone with dementia can be devastating. If a person’s surroundings are even more unfamiliar they can be seriously challenged, but Sheldon seems to be adjusting. He doesn’t go anyplace alone; he doesn’t speak the language so it would be difficult to go out, anyway.
Sheldon’s only son, Saul, was killed in Viet Nam. Afterwards, he dreams of him and starts to talk about the days when he, himself, was a marine, a sniper, even calling out a man’s name in his sleep. His wife is put out. After all, he has always told her that when he was in service, he had a job as a clerk, a desk job. This is what leads her to believe he is losing it. Sheldon meanders between reality and fantasy, at times, but never madness or confusion. He has logical explanations for everything he does, although sometimes his explanations rattle those around him.
In Norway, he lives in an apartment adjacent to Rhea and Lars. Upstairs, the neighbors are always quarreling loudly, in a language he does not understand. One day, a woman appears outside his door and is in need of help. When he opens up the door, he sees it is the woman from upstairs and she also has a little boy with her. He allows her to come in and escape the wrath of the man she is living with, and the story sprouts wings.
Senka, the boy’s mother, is a Serb. In her country, her family was brutally killed by Kosovars who were extracting revenge for the deeds of the Serbs who murdered their families and friends. They do not care that the war is over. Brutally raped, Senka becomes pregnant, and the little boy with her is the product of that encounter. The man who raped her, Enver, is from Kosovo. He traced her to Oslo when he found out that he was a father, and he traveled there to capture his son and return with him to Kosovo.
Now, getting back to Sheldon’s story; he has long believed that the Koreans may be looking for him to exact revenge for those he killed when he was a sniper during that war. Though this may defy reality a bit, in fact, after he rescues the child and his mother, he does wind up being pursued by some pretty unsavory characters, although they were definitely not Koreans! As he flees with the child, whom he names Paul, as a tribute to his son, his thoughts travel between his past and the present time, recalling tactics he was taught in military training that will help them both survive. He remembers WWII, a war he was too young to fight in and thinks about Korea, the war he personally witnessed. Then he thinks about Vietnam where his son lost his life.
Sheldon is filled with guilt. He thinks of his war time experiences and remembers his personal responsibility for some of the pain; he blames himself for causing things that were beyond his control, random accidents of fate, sometimes. He thinks about his son and his son’s service to the country and blames himself for his enlistment. He accepts his own weaknesses as the cause of most of the failures in his life. Sheldon’s thoughts are so basic and so simple, that, at times, the reader will have to laugh out loud, even though the prior thought might have provoked a deeper emotion and thought, in contradiction to that “funny” feeling.
The story really opens up a dialogue on aging as well as bigotry. It suggests many questions to the reader. Why would Norway allow wanted men into the country because they seek sanctuary? Have they become too liberal in their behavior, saving the victimizer to attack the victim again? Which of Sheldon’s and/or Donny’s memories are real and which are made up to salve his conscience? Does Sheldon have dementia or are his explanations for his behavior plausible?
The book is hard to put down. It draws the reader in, as Sheldon, an octogenarian, draws on his military background and memory to become somewhat of a hero. The mystery is told in three parts in which Sheldon reminisces about the past and the major events that have colored his attitudes about life. The reader will discover that evil begets evil, hate begets more violence, revenge invites vengeance and war invites serious retaliation into the future. There is no easy answer for the prejudices and the anger someone harbors in their heart and mind.
I liked the book, but I thought some of the coincidences required the suspension of disbelief. Also, there are some unanswered questions. How did Senka get the information she hid away? How did Enver find out about it? Why didn’t the police put a surveillance detail on Rhea and Lars?
Regardless of the inconclusive moments, still, the book was exciting, and I stayed up half the night to finish it! The author juxtaposed tongue in cheek humor opposite gruesome scenes and it worked so well that it was really easy to read. Sheldon’s philosophical ideas about aging and behavior are really thought provoking and worthy of discussion.

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I finished this novel yesterday (06/29/2014) and I loved it. Miller takes us into the mind of 82 year old Sheldon Horowitz, who was a Marine sniper in Korea and whose only child was killed in Vietnam. Sheldon blames himself for the loss of his son, and after the death of his wife, Sheldon comes to

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live with his grand daughter and her husband in Oslo. When a neighbor woman is murdered, Sheldon escapes with the woman's young son in an effort to save the boy. There are funny moments here, especially in the characters of the Oslo police, and moments of grace and wit to go with the inevitable fight scenes. The jacket blurbs claim that the book transcends its genre, and those blurbs are right.

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Excellent performance of terrific story (here's the blurb from Amazon:) Sheldon Horowitz—widowed, impatient, impertinent—has grudgingly agreed to leave New York and move in with his granddaughter, Rhea, and her new husband, Lars, in Norway: a country of blue and ice with one thousand Jews, not

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one of them a former Marine sniper in the Korean War turned watch repairman. Not until now, anyway.

Home alone one morning, Sheldon witnesses a dispute between the woman who lives upstairs and an aggressive stranger. When events turn dire, Sheldon seizes and shields the neighbor’s young son from the violence, and they flee the scene. As Sheldon and the boy look for a safe haven in an alien world, past and present weave together, forcing them ever forward to a wrenching moment of truth.

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I chose this novel because it appeared on the Best List of 2013 in the UK's Guardian newspaper. No need to reiterate the story as it is reviewed by others. Sheldon is a complex 82 year old using all his life experiences to save a small boy who is being pursued by some very unpleasant people. The

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author tells the story pretty much through Sheldon's thoughts. He has a slight case of dementia so sometimes things are a bit fuzzy for him but he is determined to do what is necessary to keep this boy safe. Sheldon is a crusty, old but caring guy who has had a good deal of life's experiences thrown his way. He seems to be steely on the outside but has a very good handle on life and his place in it. He is a loyal, loving guy with alot of life's guilt regarding his choices. The author does a good job of making you laugh when he thinks he is conversing with his dead friends for advice, and then putting you on edge when the "bad" people show up and yes the end will make you cry but also glad you had the chance to spend a few days with Sheldon Horowitz! Good read.

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The main character of this delightful book is a marvelous creation. Cranky, opinionated, and remorseful, 82-year-old Sheldon Horowitz is also insightful and funny. Part of the wonder of this book is the way that Miller was able to weave imaginary conversations with people long-dead with issues

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arising from geopolitical conflicts to create a story full of marvelous descriptions, humor, and a strong narrative drive.

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Eighty-two-year-old Sheldon Horowitz is widowed and grudgingly agrees to leave his New York apartment to move with his granddaughter, Rhea, and her husband, Lars, to Oslo, Norway. Alone in their shared apartment he witnesses an argument between the woman upstairs and an aggressive man. On an

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impulse Sheldon grabs the woman’s young son, and flees with him form this violent scene. Neither of them speak Norwegian, nor do they speak a common language, but somehow Sheldon communicates that he will keep this boy, whom he calls Paul, safe.

What an unlikely hero! Though it is never named or specifically diagnosed, Sheldon clearly suffers PTSD from his service in Korea, as a Marine sharp-shooter – a military history he has kept from his family. He also carries a heavy burden of guilt for the death of his only son, Saul, who died in serving in Vietnam, presumably to gain his father’s admiration as a warrior. Now, Sheldon is a frail, shadow of his former self; isolated by language and by dreams / fugue states that are every bit as real to Sheldon as reality.

I marveled at his inventiveness and boldness in finding his way, eluding both the bad guys and the police. My heart about stopped several times, when Sheldon, Paul and/or Rhea faced dangerous situations.

The book is also full of many humorous scenes that serve to lessen the tension. Even the bad guys fall into comic situations. (Hasn’t a love of cinnamon buns been everyone’s downfall at some point?)

Miller also gives us wonderful supporting characters. Police Chief Inspector Sigrid Odegard has few scenes, but she makes an impact – strong, resourceful, a born leader, and courageous. Her colleague Petter Hansen is the quintessential quiet detective; he pays attention to small oddities and ferrets out information that others might disregard as unimportant.

And Paul. He is a completely silent character, never saying a word, and yet Miller gives us such a clear picture of him. Frightened, isolated by language and culture, unaware of who this giant American grandfather is or why he’s doing so, Paul goes along with Sheldon. He doesn’t complain, he doesn’t balk as what he’s asked to do, he simply trusts that Sheldon knows what should be done. And he clearly feels safe with the old man.

This is a wonderful debut, and I’m eager to read more by Miller.

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A most affecting literary suspense novel, with important universal themes such as grief, parent-child relations, revenge, violence, and guilt. Sheldon, an elderly Jewish watch repairman, has been displaced from New York City to Oslo to join his daughter and her Norwegian husband, following the

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death of his wife and the news that his grand daughter is pregnant. His late wife and now his grand daughter believed he is suffering from dementia, but there's much evidence to contradict that assumption, although he does have visions of people and situations from his past. After a Serbian woman is murdered in Sheldon's bedroom while he hides in the closet with her son, he flees with the boy to escape from the violence and the unknowns of the situation. Although the story is told primarily in the third person from Sheldon's perspective, the narrative shifts occasionally to what is happening to his grand daughter, the police inspector who is trying to find the murderer, and the Kosovan perpetrators. The strength of the novel derives from the power of the back stories of Sheldon, his Korean War experience, and his relationship with his son. Sheldon's guilt for his perceived responsibility for his own wartime activities, as well as for his son's death in Vietnam, are combined with his acute grief over the many losses he has experienced. Although this is a page-turner that we want to rush through for its suspense, it is a book to savor and remember.

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Norwegian by Night. Derek B. Miller. 2012. OMG Jim would have loved the subtle ethnic humor in this book! Sheldon Horowitz, a widowed, Jewish Korean War vet and watch repairer has moved to Oslo to be with his granddaughter. Sheldon opens the door one morning to see the woman who lives upstairs and

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her young son running for their lives. He manages to save the little boy but the mother is killed as she tries to give Sheldon time to save her son. Sheldon decides to take the boy to his daughter’s summer house. Sheldon visits with his dead son, and his deal comrades from the war and uses his sniper training to save the boy. I agree

with the NYT: “…the brains of a literary novel and the boy of a thriller. This is one of the best books I’ve read in ages.

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This is our April 2017 book group selection and I have to admit that I was a skeptic....yet another book about a grumpy old man. There have been a lot of them lately: [A Man Called Ove], [The Little Paris Bookshop], [The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye], [Major Pettigrew's Last Stand].....see

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what I mean?

Somehow, this one is different...I really liked it. Sheldon (aka Donny) the obligatory grumpy old man main character is 82 yrs. old, recently widowed, and has emigrated to Norway from NYC to be his adult granddaughter, Rhea, his only surviving relative. Saul is a veteran of the Korean War where he served as a Marine sniper....or perhaps he was a clerk?...He was not terribly forthcoming with his family on that point.

Rhea's father, Saul, was Sheldon's only son and a casualty of the Viet Nam war. A death for which Sheldon feels responsible because he applied WWII & Korean War sensibilities in Saul's upbringing, thus his fatal service in Viet Nam.

Shortly after we meet Sheldon, he is drawn into a situation where he witnesses a murder in his own home and becomes responsible for a 7 yr. old boy which he cannot communicate. Sensing that organized crime is involved and the boy is in danger, Sheldon sets off with the boy to protect him from the killer(s).

The result is an improbably odyssey through the Norwegian northwoods where Sheldon's depth of character is revealed.

There is humor, suspense, and tension as the drama unfolds.

I give it 4 stars.

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With four chapters left I think I can safely say that this book has been a waste of time, which is a shame as Sean Mangan, narrated the audio book and I have never been disappointed with one of his books, until now. The book seems to revolve around a murder, the victims young son and an old man and

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of course more bad guys. The worst part of the story is that it jumps from present to past so quickly and stays in the past recounting memories of younger, fitter days. Then for a twist occasionally the old blokes childhood mate arrives upon the scene to counsel his ageing friend. Only thing is I think the mate is long gone from this world. Two stars because Sean M. Narrated so well.

Have just noticed that another reviewer thinks that the old bloke, Sheldon, and his mate, Donny, are one and the same. Maybe it's me who is suffering from dementia!

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This story took me by surprise, it was an unexpected thriller. Sheldon Horowitz was a Marine sniper in the Korean War who has recently lost his wife at 82. He decides to leave New York to live with his granddaughter Rhea and her husband Lars, in Norway. About as far as he can get from his former

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life.

Norway is difficult for Sheldon to adjust to. Although, he loves his granddaughter and her husband, he misses his old life in New York, his wife of many years, Mabel and the son he lost in the Vietnam War, Saul. But, the most frightening thing is the dementia that is slowly taking hold. In his mind, the memories of his former life are crisp and so real that he loses track of what’s real and what’s not. One day while alone in the apartment, he opens the door to a woman and her child to get them away from a very dangerous man. He has to save the young boy and they set off going across the country being chased by the bad guys, the police and his family. Excellent book and highly recommended.
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Ambitious first novel succeeds with a quirky story, finely formed characters and writing rich with interest and meaning. Slow to read but worthwhile for it.

An utterly surprising and wonderful thriller with an unexpected and not necessarily likeable protagonist.

this book is funny which is a surprise looking at the synopsis. I so enjoyed the old main character. Nothing to lose he just does what he thinks is right to make up for the loss of his son.
When he tries to get rid of the tractor, I was laughing out loud.
Great book.

One of my favorite reviewers tagged "Norwegian By Night" as an A+ so I had very high expectations. After reading it, I felt it was good, nothing special, a 3.0 stars, and I'll be less inclined to jump on this reviewer's "sure things" in the near future. The story is about an 82 year old Jew who is

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persuaded to move from New York to live with his grand-daughter and her new husband in Norway. She believes the old man is demented, it soon becomes quite clear that he is not. There is a murder and as a consequence the old man is on the run with a seven year old boy who is being pursued by the killer. But the story has more to do with the old man's guilt over the death of his own son years ago. And then I thought, haven't I read this book before, several times before? There is a chase, the cops are the third team of involved characters but there really isn't a lot of tension in the story, at least for me. There is some clever dialog, and of course the old man has all the best one-liners. And then somewhat inconsistent with the story up to that point, there is quite a bit of blood and dead bodies in the last few pages. Can't recommend it.

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There’s nobody going to accuse this guy of plagiarism. Imagine coming up with an idea for a novel…. Let’s see, it’s going to combine Jews, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the KLA and dementia. Where shall I set it? Ah yes – Norway.

What I admired most of all about this novel was the quirkily

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intelligent writing style. It constantly teases and surprises without losing focus. The storyline was good, but simpler than an out-and-out thriller might have been. The end, when it came, felt abrupt. Perhaps the main message that came out of it for me was that dementia – exactly the right amount of dementia – makes you pretty much invincible.

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