Per Petterson masters the art of writing simply about big subjects, and this is the heartwarming debut that brought the author of the highly acclaimed Out Stealing Horses to prominence

"If you loved Out Stealing Horses, you won't be disappointed by his razor-sharp debut. The language is simple, beautiful and cleansed of literary affectation. There is not a single superfluous word" Ekstrabladet (Denmark) "These father-son stories bring us the first meeting with one of Nordic literature's most lovable characters, Arvid Jansen. A mixture of Alfons Aberg, Ingemar from My Life as a Dog and in part Oskar from The Tin Drum ... New readers should begin nowhere but here" Euroman (Denmark) "There is both humour and tenderness. Petterson masters the art of writing simply of big subjects. As a reader, you have to read slowly and attentively to register everything, or read the book twice, which you gladly will" Kristeligt Dagblad (Norway)

Per Petterson was born in Oslo in 1952 and worked for several years as an unskilled labourer and a bookseller. He made his literary breakthrough in 2003 with the prizewinning novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been published in forty-nine languages and won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is the sixth of his widely acclaimed works to be published in English.