Items related to Midnight Sun: A novel

Nesbo, Jo Midnight Sun: A novel ISBN 13: 9780385354202

Midnight Sun: A novel - Hardcover

 
9780385354202: Midnight Sun: A novel
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
The internationally acclaimed author of Blood on Snow and the Harry Hole novels now gives us the tightly wound tale of a man running from retribution, a renegade hitman who goes to ground far above the Arctic circle, where the never-setting sun might slowly drive a man insane.
           
He calls himself Ulf—as good a name as any, he thinks—and the only thing he’s looking for is a place where he won’t be found by Oslo’s most notorious drug lord: the Fisherman. He was once the Fisherman’s fixer, but after betraying him, Ulf is now the one his former boss needs fixed—which may not be a problem for a man whose criminal reach is boundless. When Ulf gets off the bus in Kåsund, on Norway’s far northeastern border, he sees a “flat, monotonous, bleak landscape . . . the perfect hiding place. Hopefully.”
           
The locals—native Sami and followers of a particularly harsh Swedish version of Christianity—seem to accept Ulf’s explanation that he’s come to hunt, even if he has no gun and the season has yet to start. And a bereaved, taciturn woman and her curious, talkative young son supply him with food, the use of a cabin deep in the woods, a weapon—and companionship that stirs something in him he thought was long dead.
           
But the agonizing wait for the inevitable moment when the Fisherman’s henchmen will show—the midnight sun hanging in the sky like an unblinking, all-revealing eye—forces him to question if redemption is at all possible or if, as he’s always believed, “hope is a real bastard.”

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
JO NESBØ is a musician, songwriter, and economist, as well as a writer. His Harry Hole novels include The Redeemer, The Snowman, The Leopard and Phantom, and he is also the author of several stand-alone novels and the Doctor Proctor series of children’s books. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel.
 
www.jonesbo.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1

How are we to start this story? I wish I could say that we’ll start at the beginning. But I don’t know where it starts. Just like everyone else, I’m not truly aware of the real sequence of cause and effect in my life.

Does the story start when I realised that I was only the fourth-best soccer player in the class? When Basse, my grandfather, showed me the drawings—his own drawings—of La Sagrada Família? When I took my first drag on a cigarette and heard my first track by the Grateful Dead? When I read Kant at university and thought I understood it? When I sold my first lump of hash? Or did it start when I kissed Bobby—who’s actually a girl—or the first time I saw the tiny, wrinkled creature who would end up being called Anna screaming up at me? Perhaps it was when I was sitting in the Fisherman’s stinking back room and he was telling me what he wanted me to do. I don’t know. We store up all sorts of stories with fabricated logic, so that life can look as though it has some meaning.

So I may as well start here, in the midst of the confusion, at a time and a place where fate seemed to be taking a short break, holding its breath. When, just for a moment, I thought I was not only on my way, but had also already arrived.

I got off the bus in the middle of the night. Screwed my eyes up against the sun. It was scouring across an island out to sea, off to the north. Red and dull. Like me. Beyond it lay yet more sea. And, beyond that, the North Pole. Perhaps this was somewhere they wouldn’t find me.

I looked round. In the three other points of the compass low mountain ridges sloped down towards me. Red and green heather, rocks, a few clumps of stunted birch trees. To the east the land slid into the sea, stony and flat as a pancake, and to the southwest it was as if it had been cut with a knife at the point where the sea started. A hundred metres or so above the motionless sea a plateau of open landscape took over, stretching inland. The Finnmark plateau. The end of the line, as Grand­father used to say.

The hard-packed gravel road I stood on led to a cluster of low buildings. The only thing that stuck out was the church tower. I’d woken up in my seat on the bus just as we were passing a sign with the name “Kåsund” on it, down by the shore, near a wooden jetty. And I thought, why not? and pulled the cord above the window to illuminate the stop sign above the bus driver.

I put on the jacket of my suit, grabbed my leather case and started walking. The pistol in the jacket pocket bounced against my hip. Right on the bone—I’d always been too thin. I stopped and tugged my money belt down under my shirt so that the notes would cushion the knocks.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the air was so clear that I felt I could see a very long way. As far as the eye can see, as the expression goes. They say that the Finnmark plateau is beautiful. Fucked if I know. Isn’t that just the sort of thing people say about inhospitable places? Either to make themselves seem a bit tough, to lay claim to some sort of insight or superiority, the way people boast about liking incomprehensible music or unreadable literature? I’d done it myself. I used to think it might make up for at least a few of the things about me that weren’t good enough. Or else it was simply meant as a consolation to the few people who had to live there: “It’s so beautiful here.” Because what was so beautiful about this flat, monotonous, bleak landscape? It’s like Mars. A red desert. Uninhabitable and cruel. The perfect hiding place. Hopefully.

The branches of a clump of trees by the side of the road in front of me moved. A moment later a figure leaped across the ditch and onto the road. My hand went automatically for the pistol but I stopped it: it wasn’t one of them. This character looked like a joker who’d jumped straight out of a pack of cards.

“Good evening!” he called to me.

He walked towards me with a strange, rolling gait, so bandy-legged that I could see the road stretch out towards the village between his legs. As he came closer I saw he wasn’t wearing a court jester’s hat on his head but a Sámi cap. Blue, red and yellow—only the bells were missing. He was wearing pale leather boots, and his blue anorak, patched with black tape, had several tears revealing yellow-coloured padding that looked more like loft insulation than feathers.

“Forgive me asking,” he said. “But who are you?”

He was at least two heads shorter than I. His face was broad, his grin wide, and his eyes at something of a slant. If you piled up all the clichés people in Oslo have about what a Sámi or native Laplander looked like, you’d end up with this bloke.

“I came on the bus,” I said.

“So I saw. I’m Mattis.”

“Mattis,” I repeated, to gain a few seconds to think about the answer to his next inevitable question.

“Who are you, then?”

“Ulf,” I said. It seemed as good a name as any.

“And what are you doing in Kåsund?”

“I’m just visiting,” I said, nodding towards the cluster of houses.

“Who are you visiting?”

I shrugged. “No one special.”

“Are you from the Countryside Commission, or are you a preacher?”

I didn’t know what people from the Countryside Commission looked like, so I shook my head and ran a hand through my long, hippy hair. Maybe I should cut it. Less eye-catching.

“Forgive me asking,” he said again, “but what are you, then?”

“A hunter,” I said. It might have been the mention of the Countryside Commission. And it was as much the truth as it was a lie.

“Oh? Are you going to hunt here, Ulf?”

“Looks like good hunting territory.”

“Yes, but you’re a week early. Hunting season doesn’t start until the fifteenth of August.”

“Is there a hotel here?”

The Sámi smiled broadly. He coughed and spat out a brown lump that I hoped was chewing tobacco or something similar. It hit the ground with an audible splat.

“Lodging house?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Camping cabin? Room to rent?” On the telephone pole behind him someone had stuck up a poster about a dance band who were going to be playing in Alta. So the city couldn’t be too far away. Maybe I should have stayed on the bus until it got there.

“How about you, Mattis?” I said, slapping away a gnat that was biting my forehead. “You wouldn’t happen to have a bed I could borrow tonight?”

“I burned my bed in the stove back in May. We had a cold May.”

“Sofa? Mattress?”

“Mattress?” He spread his hands out towards the heather-covered plateau.

“Thanks, but I like roofs and walls. I’ll have to try and find an empty dog kennel. Goodnight.” I set off towards the houses.

“The only kennel you’ll find in Kåsund is that one,” he called out plaintively, his voice falling.

I turned round. He was pointing at the building in front of the cluster of houses.

“The church?”

He nodded.

“Is it open in the middle of the night?”

Mattis tilted his head. “Do you know why no one steals anything in Kåsund? Because there’s nothing worth stealing apart from reindeer.”

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherKnopf
  • Publication date2016
  • ISBN 10 0385354207
  • ISBN 13 9780385354202
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages288
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780099593799: MIDNIGHT SUN

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780099593799
Publisher: Vintage Books, 2016
Softcover

  • 9780804172578: Midnight Sun

    Vintag..., 2017
    Softcover

  • 9781846558597: Midnight Sun

    Harvil..., 1809
    Hardcover

  • 9781846559914: Midnight Sun

    RANDOM..., 2015
    Softcover

  • 9781784703899: Midnight Sun

    Pengui..., 2016
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover First Edition Signed Quantity: 17
Seller:
VJ Books
(Tualatin, OR, U.S.A.)

Book Description hardcover. Condition: New. Author Signed Hardcover Book. February 2016 NY: Knopf First edition, first printing, fine in a fine dust jacket, signed by the author. This is a collectible book free from material defects. Jacket covering services are available for a small fee. signed by author(s). Seller Inventory # NESMIDN01

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BookOutlet
(Thorold, ON, Canada)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Hardcover. Publisher overstock, may contain remainder mark on edge. Seller Inventory # 9780385354202B

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 8.09
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
From Canada to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ebooksweb
(Bensalem, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ00DDLU_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 22.58
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0385354207-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 25.40
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0385354207-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 25.41
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0385354207

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.42
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo (signed)
Published by Alfred A Knopf, New York (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover First Edition Signed Quantity: 1
Seller:
About Books
(Henderson, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good dust jacket. First Edition in English. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2016. New and unread in a Very Good dust jacket (a little edgewear at the bottom of the jacket's front panel). NO chips, tears or fading. NOT price clipped ($23.95). Gold "Signed First Edition" sticker. Sharp corners. NO owner's name or bookplate. NOT a remainder. Pages are fresh, crisp, clean and unmarked - obviously never read. Translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith. Bound in the original black boards with a red spine, stamped in bright gold. From the dust jacket: "The internationally acclaimed author of BLOOD ON SNOW and the Harry Hole novels now gives us the tightly wound tale of a man running from retribution, a renegade hitman who goes to ground far above the Arctic Circle, where the never-setting sun might slowly drive a man insane. He calls himself Ulf -- as good a name as any, he thinks -- and the only thing he's looking for is a place where he won't be found by Oslo's most notorious drug lord: the Fisherman. He was once the Fisherman's fixer, but after betraying him, Ulf is now the one his former boss needs fixed -- which may not be a problem for a man whose criminal reach is boundless. When Ulf gets off the bus in Kåsund, on Norway's far northeastern border, he sees a 'flat, monotonous, bleak landscape . . . the perfect hiding place. Hopefully.'The locals -- native Sami and followers of a particularly harsh Swedish version of Christianity -- seem to accept Ulf's explanation that he's come to hunt, even if he has no gun and the season has yet to start. And a bereaved, taciturn woman and her curious, talkative young son supply him with food, the use of a cabin deep in the woods, a weapon -- and companionship that stirs something in him he thought was long dead. But the agonizing wait for the inevitable moment when the Fisherman's henchmen will show -- the midnight sun hanging in the sky like an unblinking, all-revealing eye -- forces him to question if redemption is at all possible or if, as he's always believed, 'hope is a real bastard.'". SIGNED by the AUTHOR. First Edition in English. Hardcover. New/Very Good dust jacket. (x), 279pp. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping. Seller Inventory # 026731

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 24.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 6.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0385354207

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.65
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Front Cover Books
(Denver, CO, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0385354207

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.39
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.30
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nesbo, Jo
Published by Knopf (2016)
ISBN 10: 0385354207 ISBN 13: 9780385354202
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0385354207

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 53.44
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book