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The Ferryman and His Wife
A Novel
Contributors
Translated by Alison McCullough
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Nov 18, 2025
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- ISBN-13
- 9781668651698
Price
$24.99Format
Format:
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
- ebook $12.99 $16.99 CAD
- Trade Paperback $17.99 $23.99 CAD
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Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.
His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge – from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.
Winner of the prestigious Brage Prize, and considered to be Grytten’s long-awaited masterpiece, The Ferryman and His Wife is the story of a quiet, yet utterly profound, life told in reverse. Timeless and absorbing, this is a novel about what we take with us – those moments that might seem insignificant as they happen but prove to be the most meaningful, in the end.
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“The Ferryman and His Wife is one of those rare novels that takes us beyond reading about a character’s life to experiencing that life. Grytten is an immensely talented writer, and as Nils, the book’s central character, makes his final voyage we also relive with him his losses and heartbreaks, his blessings and joys, all of which gather to a profound affirmation of life. Mystical, yet true to the depths of the human heart, Grytten’s novel is a triumph.”Ron Rash, author of Selena and The Caretaker
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“Only a few pages into The Ferryman and His Wife, I was heartbroken that this story would ever end. With his spare, beautiful prose, Frode Grytten made me homesick for a landscape I’ve never seen—the remote and wintry fjords of Norway. Gorgeous and devastating in its simplicity, The Ferryman and His Wife takes us to the heart of things—life and how we live it but also how we leave it.”Eileen Garvin, bestselling author of Crow Talk and The Music of Bees.
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“Tenderly powerful and urgently contemplative, The Ferryman and His Wife is a profound exploration of what gives a life meaning. With remarkable creativity and piercing honesty, Frode Grytten guides us on a vivid and intimate journey through both the ferryman’s fjord, and his memories. The story is breathtaking,unforgettable, and threaded with humble insights about the human experience. Upon turning the final page, I held the book to my chest with a shiver of gratitude.”Sarah Damoff, USA Today-bestselling author of The Bright Years
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"The character of Nils conveys patience, wisdom, kindness, and love in a narrative that inevitably brings to mind the Greek myth of Charon, ferrying dead souls across the Rivers of Acheron and Styx to Hades… Against the harsh and beautiful Norwegian landscape backdrop, [Grytten] reveals the depth and complexity of ordinary lives in this outstanding novel, without even the briefest descent into sentimentality."Library Journal, *STARRED REVIEW*
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“A book worth waiting for. With the author's finest hallmarks: Beautiful, precise prose sprinkled with dry humor and the salty taste of ruggedness and tenderness... he manages to connect the profound seriousness of life, the vulnerability of nature, and human loneliness in a touching, boundless narrative.”Dagsavisen
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“Grytten's distinctive style can be found throughout everything he writes: he finds the right words to depict everyday life in a prose that, in less skilled hands, could easily become sentimental… Grytten's strength lies in a combination of journalistic skill to condense stories into the fewest possible words, combined with a poetic ability to find just the right words that evoke the sky, smells, and life. With simple sentences, linguistic energy is created that captivates and holds us from the very beginning.”Dagbladet
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