Encircling 3

The Encircling Trilogy comes thundering to a close as the man at the center is revealed The final book in Carl Frode Tiller’s groundbreaking Encircling Trilogy is here. In Barbara Haveland’s powerful translation, two new letters circle closer than ever to David, who allegedly lost his memory. One is from Marius, who has led the life of wealth and privilege that David was meant to live. And yet Marius does not appreciate it—desperate for attention, he lies to his girlfriend, with disastrous consequences. The other comes from Susanne, an ex-lover whose affair with David led to the breakup of her marriage. Humiliated by David’s unflattering portrayal of her in his novel, Susanne is determined to exact revenge on him in the most painful possible way. Last of all we come face-to-face with David himself: a frustrated writer whose early successes have faded. His therapy sessions seem to reveal a dangerous and violent individual bent on getting what he wants at any cost. With David’s own story told, the last piece falls into place, and his true character is unveiled. But as with books one and two, there are twists and turns that upset expectations and leave the reader wondering whom to believe. Across three books, Tiller’s incisive character portraits lay bare the inequalities of class and excesses of wealth in Norwegian society. With Encircling 3: Aftermath, Tiller sounds the unexplored depths of David’s life, in the culmination of this astonishing feat of psychological realism.

This study suggests the development of the cartouche was closely related to the monumental encircling symbolism incorporated into the architectural designs of the Old Kingdom pyramids. By employing a new architectural style and a new iconographic symbol, the pharaoh sought to elevate his status above that of the members of his powerful court.

The brilliant first novel in the Encircling Trilogy, a searing psychological portrait of a man by his friends David has lost his memory. When a newspaper ad asks his friends and family to share their memories of him, three respond: Jon, his closest friend; Silje, his teenage girlfriend; and Arvid, his estranged stepfather. Their letters reveal David’s early life in the small town of Namsos, full of teenage rebellion, the uncertainties of first love, and intense experiments in art and music. As the narrative circles ever closer to David, the letters interweave with scenes from the present day, and it becomes less and less clear what to believe. Jon’s and Silje’s adult lives have run aground on thwarted ambition and failed intimacy, and Arvid has had a lonely struggle with cancer. Each has suspect motives for writing, and soon a contradictory picture of David emerges. Whose remembrance of him is right? Or do they all hold some fragment of the truth? Carl Frode Tiller’s masterful opening novel to the Encircling Trilogy won the European Prize for Literature, the English PEN Award, and the Hunger Prize. Encircling, with David as its brooding central enigma, confronts the relativity of memory in an audacious and daring novel that reveals the shape of a life and leaves us wanting more.

The information in the Flora of Australia online website was first published in the Flora of Australia series.