Taut, lyrical and utterly gripping - a headrush of a debut novel about four boys coming of age on the deprived outskirts of Oslo

Last night i got woke up by marco ringing, and he was crying, he said, he died ivor, he died, and i didnt need to hear who to know, i just hung up.

Ivor and Marco have been getting high since they were thirteen, started dealing at fourteen, by fifteen they were carrying knives. At sixteen years old, they hurtle from one trip to the next, one fight to the next, always watching their backs. Ivor dreams of getting out - finishing school, becoming a lawyer, marrying the girl he loves from the corner shop - but the path he's on only leads one way.

In flashes of firecracker prose, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos, Oliver Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world.

About the Author

Oliver Lovrenski (Author)
Oliver Lovrenski has a Croatian background and he grew up in Norway. His debut novel, Back in the Day, was an instant number-one bestseller when it was published in Norway in 2023. It won the Oslo City Artist Prize, Norwegian Bookseller Prize (making Lovrenski the youngest winner in the prize's seventy-five-year history) and was shortlisted for the Brage Award and the Tarjei Vesaas Debut Prize. The Norwegian edition is now in its eighth print run. The English translation by Nichola Smalley will be published in hardback in 2025.

Reviews
Gripping from the very first sentence. This kind of debut only arrives once a decade * Dagsavisen *
An urgent rush of a novel, rhythmic and raw, [about] four boys becoming men in Oslo amid bad choices and worse circumstances. It reminded me of La Haine... A deeply absorbing picture of friendship & chaos, tenderness & pain -- David Hayden, author of 'Darker with the Lights On'
Phenomenal. Nerve-wracking, unflinching and supremely entertaining... When literature is great, it opens doors to worlds, languages and people we often find difficult to understand. Oliver Lovrenski does this with a bang... [Back in the Day] can and should be read again and again * Soundvenue *
Crystal clear in thought and writing - simply a sensationally good debut * Aftenposten *
Raw and fascinating, [with] a vulnerability and insistent vitality that shines through... Pure energy, humour, hope * Jyllands-Posten *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241705834
Author Oliver Lovrenski
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Hamish Hamilton Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 204mm * 132mm * 25mm