The Princes of Pauper's Pond

In 1912, two brothers are sent into the forest to fend for themselves, forging a bond through hunger, freedom and endurance. Before the summer is over, a decision fractures that world, leaving a scar that will mark their family for generations. The wondrous, profound and deeply moving debut novel by one of Norway’s finest artists, Lars Elling…

‘This gorgeous bildungsroman also delivers a gripping historical novel … as tactile and eternal as one of the author's own paintings. As satisfying as anything you'll read all year’ Joshua Ferris

‘Lyrical and sometimes brutal descriptions of their adventures in the natural world evoke … Huckleberry Finn or Swallows and Amazons, but Elling’s young “Princes” are fated to grow up into resentful, troubled men in a difficult century’ Financial Times

‘A lyrical, haunting, unforgettable novel about brotherhood, memory and the fractures that shape generations. It reads like a modern classic’ Louisa Treger

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1985. Nineteen-year-old Filip spends his days playing football, listening to music on his Walkman and drawing, searching for something he cannot yet name. He lives in a large family house shared with his grandparents, where an old rift between his grandfather Arnstein and Arnstein’s brother Truls still governs the atmosphere. The cause appears trivial, an apple tree dropping fruit across a boundary fence, but the bitterness between the brothers speaks of something far older and deeper.

1912. With Europe on the brink of upheaval, Arnstein and Truls are sent into the forest for the summer by their stern father, determined that his sons should learn to endure hardship. Left to fend for themselves among travellers, log drivers and Forest Finns, the brothers live from the land, fishing, hunting and roaming the vast woodland. Cold and hungry, yet bound together by fierce loyalty and affection, they crown themselves the princes of Pauper’s Pond, rulers of a world shaped by freedom, imagination and shared struggle. Until, back home, their father makes a decision that will change everything.

Spanning generations, The Princes of Pauper’s Pond is a vibrant, magical and deeply affecting novel about brotherhood and belonging, about finding joy and love in the open landscape, and about those single moments that can seal a family’s fate … forever…

For readers who love Maja Lunde, Per Petterson, Benjamin Myers, Claire Keegan and Maggie O’Farrell.
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‘The descriptions of the natural world the brothers explore together to create their very own kingdom of two are lyrical … and linger in the mind’s eye so brightly that you can almost smell and taste the sweet fruits of the woods … An enchanting book, with much to say about the power of the story and the image, and the importance of the stories that we tell ourselves, as individuals, families and nations’ Caroline Wyatt, European Literature Network

‘A remarkable achievement. Quietly devastating, exquisitely rendered, utterly unforgettable’ Louise Fein

‘Wonderful … brotherhood, nature and art’ Daily Mail

‘An extraordinary, one-of-a-kind novel set in a wild forest in Norway … a story of a bitter, decades-long family rift, of unusual characters who step out of the pages, and of a teenager with a talent for drawing out the truth. A rich, beautifully written heartbreaker of a novel. I urge you to read it’ Gill Paul

‘A beautifully told story of adventure and childhood that brings the wild and harsh landscapes of Norway to life [with] relationships between siblings and between fathers and sons masterfully portrayed’ Katie Allen

‘Richly illustrated, creative prose … masterful’ Alte Nielsen, Bok365

‘Lars Elling has created a highly distinctive narrative universe … and, in his rich visual language, paints a profound portrait of a family’ Andreas Gerk, WDR 3, Westart

‘It’s a long time since I read a Norwegian novel with more vibrant prose and more fascinating characters’ Verdens Gang

‘Elling’s deeply felt descriptions of nature cause actual heart palpitations’ Jyllands-posten

‘A classic yet highly addictive family novel’ Bazarow

‘Prose so precise and carefully chiselled … a portrait of an age and an elegy for a lost world’ Aftenposten

‘Truly, truly funny and truly, truly moving. The ending … leaves a lump in the throat’ Politiken

Lars Elling (b. 1966) is a writer and a visual artist. He is the author of two picture books and has also illustrated several children’s books. Together with Bjørn Sortland he won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1996 for the book Red, Blue and a Bit of Yellow, which he illustrated. Elling has had exhibitions in Berlin and New York and his works have been acquired by Norway’s National Museum and the Council of Culture. The Princes of Pauper’s Pond is his first novel.

Don Bartlett completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbø and Gunnar Staalesen’s Varg Veum series: We Shall Inherit the Wind, Wolves in the Dark and the Petrona award-winning Where Roses Never Die. He also translated Faithless, the previous book in Kjell Ola Dahl’s Oslo Detective series for Orenda Books. He lives with his family in a village in Norfolk.