Book Review: Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes

                                                                                   BOOK INFORMATION:                                                                  

Title: Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes
Author:  Per Petterson
Publisher:  Harvill Secker
Source: Library 
Publisher Date: November 14th 2013 
Pages: 118 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Arvid is six years old and lives on the outskirts of Oslo. His father works in a shoe factory; his Danish mother works as a cleaner. Arvid wets his bed at night and has nightmares about crocodiles, but begins to piece the world together. One day his father is collected in a black car; his grandfather has died, like the bullfinch. When Arvid sees a photo of his mother as a young woman he understands how time passes and then he cries and says he doesn't want to get old. And one morning the teacher tells the pupils to pray to God because a nuclear war is looming.

These are beautiful tales of growing up from prizewinning international author Per Petterson.

                                                                        MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK                                                              

"He held his hands to his face as if to keep his skin in place and for many nights he lay clutching his body, feeling time sweeping through it like little explosions. The palms of his hands were quivering and he tried to resist time and hold it back. But nothing helped, and with every pop he felt himself getting older. he cried, and said to his mother: 'I don't want to get older. I want to stay like I am now! Six and a half, that's enough, isn't it?" 

Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is a sweet little novella. This book gives us readers various snippets of the life of a boy named Arid, who lives with his parents in the country of Norway in the early 1960s. His father is a man who works in a shoe factory, while his mother is a Danish woman who works as a cleaner. This is life through the eyes of a sensitive and imaginative child. 

The book is extremely insightful. Throughout the book, we get triumphs and lows. We learn that Arid wets his bed at night, and has nightmares but also that he is a little boy that is beginning to really piece his world together. He is learning to figure things out. I thought the stories in this book were insightful and poignant. The writing had such a beautiful prose and was super breathtaking. 

I am super glad that I picked up this short little book at the library and gave it a read. I can't believe it was only recently translated into English. I will be purchasing a copy for myself to treasure forever. I hope you will check this book.