Before I Burn

Description

In the late 1970s, a pyromaniac runs amok in rural Norway. As homes are burnt to cinders, panic spreads as neighbours wonder who amongst them could cause such fear and anguish.

Born in to this chaos, Gaute Heivoll is indelibly linked to this disturbing time, and to the arsonist intent on such destruction. Before I Burn is a fictional exploration of the true events of Norway's most dramatic arson case. By juxtaposing the pyromaniac's story with his own, Gaute Heivoll lays bare the insanity that lies just beneath the surface of the human psyche, and the triggers that may flip any of us into madness. Written in fluid, vivid prose, and with a shattering honesty and humanity, Before I Burn is a literary sensation.

Reviews

'Gaute Heivoll's new book is great storytelling of the highest order, an existential horror story from the foremost of the young writers.' - Edvard Hoem

'It has been an eerie pleasure to read Gaute Heivoll's thrilling novel about the pyromaniac who shook his home district in 1978. For jeg brenner ned shows once again that Heivoll is a key name among his generation of writers and one of the most significant in contemporary Norwegian literature. The novel has all the requisites to captivate readers and become Heivoll's definitive breakthrough.' - Hans Herbjornsrud

Author description

Gaute Heivoll made his debut in 2002 with the prose collection Liten dansende gutt [Small Dancing Boy], and since then has written poetry, children's books, short stories and novels. Heivoll was the recipient of the 2003 Tiden-prisen Prize. In 2006 he was the Norwegian representative to the Literary Festival Project Scritture Giovanni and his short-story "Dr. Gordeau" was translated into English, German and Italian.