Keep Saying Their Names: A novel

Simon Stranger

ISBN 10: 0525657363 / ISBN 13: 9780525657361

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2020

About this Item

Inspired by historical events and by personal history, a shattering, exquisite double-portrait of a Norwegian family savaged by WWII and of a man devoted to crimes against humanity, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both called home. Once the Germans conquer Norway in 1940, they quickly discover a tremendous native asset: Henry Oliver Rinnan, a double-agent so cruel and manipulative that he would become notorious as one of Norway's vilest traitors, second only to Quisling himself. In 1941, Rinnan and his gang set up headquarters in an unspectacular suburban house and transformed the cellar into a makeshift torture and death chamber reserved for Norwegian resisters. In the war's aftermath, this house became home for a Jewish-Norwegian couple still reeling from trauma. Yet here their two young daughters spend a happy childhood in the same rooms where, only a few years before, some of the most heinous acts of the occupation had been committed. Many decades later, Simon Stranger married the daughter of one of those girls, and, learning the history of her family, soon realized their story could not be told without including Rinnan's, provoking a plague of questions: What turned a bashful shoemaker's son into this despised criminal? How could a Jewish family have chosen to move into that house? And how could Stranger himself explain to his 21st-century son this virtually inconceivable history, and what it means to be Jewish? He wrestles with these essential questions in this stunning novel, seamlessly melding fact and fiction, guiding us through five generations' worth of history, at once intimate and global, seeking to reveal how evil is born in some and courage in others. A tremendous contribution to the literature of the Second World War--focused tightly and specifically, as all of it must be, on a previously unseen corner of it--Keep Saying Their Names reveals core facets of the human psyche. This is an intimate, unforgettable account that compelling us to confront the darkness of the past honestly and genuinely in order to build a better future for those we love.

Seller Inventory # 00094631504

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Keep Saying Their Names: A novel
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525657363
• ISBN 13: 9780525657361
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

An extraordinary work of fiction, inspired by historical events--an exquisitely crafted double portrait of a Nazi war criminal and a family savaged by World War II, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both called home

On a street in modern-day Norway, a writer kneels with his son and tells him that according to Jewish tradition, a person dies twice: first when their heart stops beating, and then again the last time their name is read or thought or said. Before them is a stone engraved with the name Hirsch Komissar, the boy's great-great-grandfather who was murdered by Nazis.

The man who sent Komissar to his death was one of Norway's vilest traitors, Henry Oliver Rinnan, a Nazi double agent who set up headquarters in an unspectacular suburban house and transformed the cellar into a torture chamber for resisters, a place to be avoided and feared.

That is until Komissar's own son, Gerson, and his young wife, Ellen, take up residence in the house after the war. While their daughters spend a happy childhood playing in the same rooms where some of the most heinous acts of the occupation occurred, the weight of history threatens to pull the couple apart.

In Keep Saying Their Names, Simon Stranger uses this unusual twist of fate to probe five generations of intimate and global history, seamlessly melding fact and fiction, creating a brilliant lexicon of light and dark. The resulting novel reveals how evil is born in some and courage in others--and seeks to keep alive the names of those lost.

About the Author

Born in 1976, SIMON STRANGER is the author of four previous novels and several books for children. His work has been translated into twelve languages, but Keep Saying Their Names is his first to be published in English. It was awarded the highly prestigious Norwegian Booksellers' Prize in 2018. He lives in Norway. Translated from Norwegian by Matt Bagguley.