Seventeen [Hardcover]

Per Nilsson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Jonathan ends up in the emergency room. His dad is sitting with him and starts relating all the things he should have told Jonathan a long time ago: about his own time as a 17-year-old hippie in the early 1970s, about how he met the rebellious girl who would become Jonathan's mum, and about the catastrophe that meant that Jonathan did not see his dad for eleven years. Several other people also have their say with completely different stories. It all seems to be about Jonathan, about who he is and how he became the person he is. But has he managed to hear anything of all that has been said, and why is he lying here?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Seventeen-year-old Jonatan is unconscious in the emergency room, condition unknown, but this is not Jonatan's story; rather, it is the story of Guran, his estranged father. The father hasn't seen the son since the boy was five, and he takes this opportunity to fill Jonatan in on his history, starting with Guran's own experiences as a seventeen-year-old hippie in 1972 Sweden. Throughout the night, he recounts what amounts to a requiem for an age and an attitude; the story of the music, the protests, the lifestyle, the dream of a New Society achieved through people living, smoking, dropping acid and sleeping together unfolds through Guran's account of his early life and the years when he and Jonatan's mother lived together before having Jonatan, an account that drifts between storytelling and sermonizing, adulation and apology. Sometime in the night, Jonatan's girlfriend arrives, and eventually Jonatan's mother appears as well. When she realizes that Jonatan's girlfriend has likely been seduced by Guran's stories, she decides to cut through his purple haze with her own version, which casts the hippies as ineffectual dreamers, good for staging romantic protests and annoying capitalist fathers, but not much else. Though readers never get Jonatan's reaction to it (turns out he's just passed out from drinking too much after a fight - the details are left vague and thus smack of device), the story thus achieves fair and balanced accounting. Rather than plotted fiction, the accounts of Jonatan's parents are captivating oral history, important for giving two perspectives on how individuals and society might achieve social justice, and what factors might get in the way. The Swedish viewpoint gives a different slant than many American readers see on the turbulent era, and since many contemporary teens (and/or their parents) romanticize or are at least fascinated by this recent era in social and political history, this will likely find a small but committed readership. --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

About the Author

Per Nilsson was born in Malmö in 1954, and lives in Sölvesborg with his four children. He trained as a mathematics and music teacher. Heart's Delight was the first of Mr. Nilsson's books to be published in the U.S. It won first prize in Raben & Sjogren's 1992 awards competition for best love story, the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1997, and the Dutch "Silver Kiss" in 1999.

Tara Chace holds a doctorate in Scandinavian literature and translates works that are written in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. Her recent literary translations include Markus and Diana by Klaus Hagerup, Heart's Delight by Per Nilsson, and You & You & You, also by Per Nilsson, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Front Street Press (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932425896
• ISBN-13: 978-1932425895
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,195,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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