Ashes in My Mouth Sand in My Shoes

I just loved this short collection of interrelated stories. They all cluster around a young boy named Arvid and a lot of them deal with his relationship to his father, a strong and physically imposing character, in contrast to the sensitive and thoughtful son. These stories are tender, vulnerable and absolutely heartbreaking considering they were written before the real life tragedy that would claim Petterson's father, mother, younger brother and niece (victims of the Scandanavian Star ferry disaster).

Petterson has a way of describing intimate moments that occur when we're alone that are so insightful but he writes them so clearly, as though they were the easiest observations. This is a short book but a significant one.