World Voices: Norway’s Per Petterson Relaxes

By Neal 

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Norwegian novelist Per Petterson poses with his two American publishers, Frances Coady of Picador, which is about to release a paperback edition of In the Wake, and Fiona McCrae of Graywolf, which published the IMPAC-nominated Out Stealing Horses in hardcover earlier this month. The trio had just entertained a small group of literary magazine (and web!) editors over lunch at Gramercy Tavern, with Petterson regaling the guests with stories of his experiences working at a bookstore in Oslo. He’s in town this week for PEN World Voices, and you might even be able to still get tickets for his afternoon conversation with Marilynne Robinson. It’s one of the World Voices events that almost make me wish I wasn’t leaving town for another book festival this weekend…