Keep Saying Their Names by Simon Stranger
Description Keep Saying Their Names by Simon Stranger
Inspired by historical events and by personal history, a shattering, exquisite double portrait of a Norwegian family savaged by World War II and of a man devoted to crimes against humanity, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both call 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 to a Jewish-Norwegian couple still reeling from trauma. Here their two young daughters spend a happy childhood in the very 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 that 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 twenty-first 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 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 compels us to confront the darkness of the past honestly and genuinely in order to build a better future for those we love.
Praise Keep Saying Their Names by Simon Stranger
“Keep Saying Their Names is a deep, yet gentle, exploration of how we become who we are, and how our individual decisions can impact the lives of others. Through the vivid scenes he creates, Stranger allows us to get closer to understanding how war creeps into every fabric of our lives, how it can possess places, buildings, objects, people. Ultimately, Stranger’s masterful book is a pledge for taking individual responsibility: by remembering those who are no longer here, by keeping their stories alive, and by recognizing that we are made of our past. Reading this book is a deeply emotional experience, especially during a time of reemerging anti-Semitism. Its humaneness leaves you hopeful.” —Nora Krug, author of Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
“Keep Saying Their Names is a cut diamond of a book. Both brutal and tender, it drills toward its dark truths with hypnotic force while glimmering with the bright hope that we all might be redeemed.” —Joshua Furst, author of Revolutionaries
“Haunting . . . Stranger succeeds in shining a light of hope by keeping the memory of the dead alive. This tale of triumph and compassion is a testament to courage in the face of the darkest evil.” —Publishers Weekly
About Simon Stranger
(c) André Løyning
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.