Per Petterson lost his cousin, his brother, and his parents the fire on the passenger ferry “Scandinavian Star” on April 7th, 1990. 159 people were killed. In the Wake is a powerful novel, presumably to a large extent autobiographical, that deals with the problems involved in coming to grips with terrible and 
The novel charts interior landscape of a writer. He is Arvid Jansen, aged 43. He has been more or less unable recover after losing his parents and two younger brothers in a ferry accident six years earlier. Arvid should actually have been on the same trip. After the accident, his life has changed dramatically. His wife has divorced him. He is estranged from his two young daughters. He is more or less unable to write and he hardly speaks to anyone. He is afraid of ties to other people: “I do not know if I want family anymore. It is too risky.”
Per Petterson takes us into the mind of Arvid. Into its vast emptiness and the pain. We see him rambling through each day without purpose or direction. “I feel the sun on my neck, it is burning or something is burning, and maybe it is Sunday. I don’t remember. I see only my eyes in the glass and the books beyond, and I don’t know what day it is.”
One reason the loss feels so heavy, is Arvid’s unresolved relationship to his father. And much of Arvid’s pondering revolves around the character of his father. He is probably made into an ideal, and seems larger than life in Arvid’s recollections of him.
Over time Arvid develops relationships with two neighbors. One of them is a Kurdish man who knows only very little Norwegian. The other is an attractive woman, Mrs. Grinde, who lives across the road.
After an unsuccessful suicide attempt by his brother, Arvid begins to work his way out of his mourning state. He tries to reunite with his family. Small steps, but important ones.
The topic in the novel is relatively gloomy. And, indeed, so is the book. After all, it deals with grief. However, greief, like some other emotional responses, is a state of mind experienced by many of us. And In the Wake is also a book about the rays of hope, and a book that has more. At times it is humorous as well. As well, it is seemingly authentic – Arvid is a character who fought with his family while they were alive and now misses them terribly.
In the Wake is a sensitive book, skillfully translated by Born, which deals with problems of the soul in a fine and measured way. It is a deep character study that provides an insightful look at grief and that is very well worth reading, by one of Norway’s finest writers.
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