Absolution: A Novel [Paperback]

Olaf Olafsson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2003

In his spellbinding first novel, acclaimed Icelandic author Olaf Olafsson takes us inside the mind of a man haunted by the crime he willed half a century earlier.

Expatriate businessman Peter Peterson left behind the trappings of a seemingly charmed life: a vast fortune, two children, and a stately Park Avenue address. But he also left behind another legacy: a secret from long ago that shadowed his accomplishments and estranged him from his loved ones—a crime of passion, committed in the throes of unrequited love, that became a lifetime’s burden. Yet when Peter is forced to confront the consequences of his actions, an unexpected turn of events shakes the very foundation of his past. Spanning a boyhood in Iceland to the Nazi occupation of Denmark to modern-day Manhattan, Absolution calls up Dostoevsky and Ibsen as it masterfully plumbs the darkest corners of a sinister mind and a wounded heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A popular writer in Iceland, Olafsson makes his English language debut in this sensitive, resonant, if imperfect, study of guilt, jealousy and betrayal. Peter Peterson, an Icelandic emigre and wealthy retired New York businessman, obsesses over a crime of passion he committed half a century before in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Spurned by a young Icelandic woman, he falsely accused her boyfriend of betraying the resistance movement to the Nazis. Now the aged Peterson is a cynical, fulminating recluse, his only companion a refugee Cambodian housemaid whom he clumsily attempts to seduce. Through flashbacks and reminiscences, we learn of his two failed marriages, his refusal to visit his ex-wife on her deathbed, his obsession with money and cruel contempt for his devoted son Helgi. Originally published in Iceland in 1991, this novel suffers from a protagonist who is so dislikable that one tends to lose interest in his melancholy, evasive monologue. Olafsson, president of Sony Electronic Publishing in New York, lamely frames the main narrative with commentary by a compatriot who is asked to translate the manuscript on Peterson's death and ends up identifying with him. A surprise ending puts Peterson's guilty self-recrimination in an ironic light.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

From Iceland comes a contemporary novel presented as the memoirs of an expatriate living in New York. Though wine connossieur Peter Peterson has achieved financial success, he looks back on his selfish, egotistical, and manipulative life with a combination of vanity, defensiveness, paranoia, and self-deception. As a student in Denmark, he responds brutally to the pangs of unrequited love; for the rest of his life, he is haunted by his crime of passion, despite a new life in the New World. Though Peterson claims he does not seek forgiveness, the revelations in this first-person narrative are those of a guilt-ridden man yearning for understanding and vindication. A best-selling author in Iceland, Olafsson deserves wide attention in this country as well. Recommended.
- Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Ct .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400030684
• ISBN-13: 978-1400030682
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Touching, March 2, 2004

By 

Heather Marshall Negahdar "Haze" (Bridgetown, Barbados) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolution: A Novel (Paperback)

"For I fear death, I am afraid of the end, the nothingness and perplexity."

Peter Peterson a wealthy businessman and wine connossieur from Iceland is tormented living out his last days in New York. Besides the fear that his undeserving children will acquire his estate, there is his repetitive obsession with a crime of passion he believes he committed sometime back in his youth in Denmark. This crime brings him constant nightmares and cold sweats in his awakening and sleeping hours for they never leave him.

His constant companion is his Cambodian girlfriend who takes care of him, does all the chores and hardly leaves his side. This is a touching story that will keep Mr. Olafsson's fans on the brink of anxiety.

Lovers of Olaf Olafsson should not miss this beautiful novel which I believe is his first book... Grab it now. And I would also like to recommend Walking Into The Night by the same author.
Heather Marshall 2/3/04

4.0 out of 5 stars Live and learn. Could have been a contender., February 27, 2011

By 

M. R. Bailey "mrbailey" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolution: A Novel (Paperback)

This is the story of a frozen heart.

Peter Peterson fell in love with a girl who tolerated him, perhaps even led him on. Peter followed her from Iceland to Denmark in 1941 where he learned that she opened to another young man. He still loves her, denies that she is lost to him and arranges a weekend away with her. When in his burning desire for her he attempts to make love to her, she rejects him utterly. He takes revenge by informing on her lover to German authorities in occupied Copenhagen. This crime imprisons him for the remainder of his damaged, closed life.

The writing is spare and lucid. The slow-burning fuse of the narrator's guilt propels the reader forward through the thickets of an average lonely life. There is a distance in the narrative, however, that held me at arms length. As a result, this reader's take-away is qualified; similar to a footnote that sticks in the memory after details of the tale break apart and fade.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, October 27, 2009

By 

Edmundo el Profundo (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolution: A Novel (Paperback)

I picked this up in Reykjavik at the end of a trip to Iceland. I had previously read other Icelandic authors to get a feel for the country and its people but was disappointed. This book was a great read. The translation was done by the author himself so the quality of the prose is even more remarkable. There are numerous flashbacks contained in chapters that usually run about four pages. It jumps back and forth from the 1940s and from Reykjavik to Copenhagen to New York.

My daughter tried this book and found it tough to read at first because she didn't like the main character (he is not what one would call warm and cuddly). But she became engrossed with the book halfway through and was glad she stuck with it. I, on the other hand, loved it from the first page.

I am about to order another book from this author and I can't wait till it arrives.