Ein Flüchtling kreuzt seine Spur

Aksel Sandemose (1899–1965) has firmly established himself in the literary history of Scandinavia with "A Refugee Crosses His Tracks." The "Law of Jante," which still represents the Scandinavian mentality today as a warning against social inequality and self-aggrandizement, originates from this work. It is a coming-of-age novel about Sandemose's alter ego, Espen Arnakke, but at the same time, it is a significant social novel about rural Scandinavia. Aksel Sandemose allows his protagonist to recount how he seemingly became a murderer. He goes into detail, delving psychologically into early childhood, and creates a panorama of a narrow-minded, oppressive community on the brink of the 20th century, filled with observations, reflections, and anecdotes from the fictional place of Jante. Aksel Sandemose poured all his anger, despair about others and himself, and his unbridled desire for freedom into this novel. He mocks, insults, outrages, interprets, and condemns—relentlessly towards himself and others, yet also remarkably clear in probing the essence of things. Gabriele Haefs finds a tone in her translation that maintains control over the unfolding events at all times. She explores the ambivalences of the adolescent's language, which oscillates between self-aggrandizement and shame, the psychological depths, and the commenting writer Sandemose, who voices himself in the revised edition of the novel in 1955. She brings to light a great work that irritates, entertains, and moves—providing insight into a tortured soul, as only literature can.