The latest addition to my website is Lars Mytting‘s Svøm med dem som drukner (The Sixteen Trees of the Somme). This is a very well-told tale by the author of the definitive guide to wood-chopping, Norwegian Wood. Edvard Hirifjell lives with his grandfather on a remote farm in Norway. His parents died when he was three and his great-uncle Einar, his grandfather’s brother, was shot by the French resistance in 1944. However, he gradually finds out that his parents’ death is shrouded in mystery, that Einar may not be dead and that Einar may be somehow connected to his parents and their death. Having never even travelled to Oslo, he sets off for the Shetlands soon after his grandfather dies, leaving behind his girlfriend, who has reappeared after a long absence. From the Shetlands he goes, as the English title tells us, to the Somme where, after a lot of complications, both with the mystery and his love life, he more or less resolves the mystery. It is a very well-told tale by Mytting and a most enjoyable read.