When Me and God Were Little

Nygaard’s quirky and mostly delightful English-language debut centers on a young boy who cultivates a novel view of life and death. Karl Gustav’s father, a big-time construction contractor in their small town, is devastated when Karl’s older brother, Alexander, mysteriously drowns in the ocean. Karl, a second-grader, goes to live with his grandmother and soon imagines his dead grandfather is living in her head, and that her faint mustache is made of his hair. (“He had been trying for years to get out so he could breathe. It had only worked for some of his hairs,” Karl surmises.) As Karl goes through adolescence with the shroud of grief continuing to hang over the family, Nygaard throws in glimmers of hope as Karl gets a girlfriend, works for a scrap metal dealer, and becomes a star soccer player at school—and Karl eventually lets on that he knows how Alexander drowned. Some of the language can be a little over-the-top, but there are plenty of striking observations. It adds up to a pleasant and unusual look at a boy’s coming-of-age. (Dec.)