The Sixteen Trees of the Somme

Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for October 2018

By Norway's bestselling novelist and the author of Norwegian Wood, a family story of epic scale.

Edvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery - he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother.

But he knows that the fate of his grandfather's brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death - a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all.

Edvard's desperate quest to unlock the family's tragic secrets takes him on a long journey - from Norway to the Shetlands, and to the battlefields of France - to the discovery of a very unusual inheritance.

A European literary superstar Lars Mytting made his name in the UK with the translation of his breakaway hit Norwegian Wood. He further confirms his elegant skills as novelist in this perfectly-plotted tale of family conflict and the divisive toll of war.The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is about the love of wood and finding your own self, a beautifully intricate and moving tale that spans an entire century.

Translated from the Norwegian by Paul Russell Garrett