De dagelijkse redding van de wereld

by Erik Fosnes Hansen, Lucy Pijttersen (Translator)

"Erik Fosnes Hansen's Tales of Protection consists of four enthralling tales about the nature of luck and chance. Each of the tales is a feat of storytelling in its own right: a story involving a young woman, her old uncle, and a blind, brilliant beekeeper; the story of a lighthouse keeper's harrowing experience during a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea; a story of art, love, and treachery in Renaissance Italy, where religious paintings have miraculous properties; and the story of a mining engineer whose life is changed by a terrible fall "over the edge."" The tales stand alone but are ingeniously stitched together; they are alike in that they dramatize moments when people change course entirely, and in that they hinge on an understanding of the nature of coincidence, which plays a role in human life something like "the music behind the music." The tales, and the theory of seriality that underlies them, give wide play to Fosnes Hansen's imagination.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Roman, Literary Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Novels, Contemporary

403 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 1998

About the author

Erik Fosnes Hansen is a Norwegian author who made his debut at age twenty with the novel Falketårnet. His most famous work is his second novel, Psalm at Journey's End, which in separate but steadily more interwoven stories follows the individual musicians that end their careers and lives at Titanic. The book has been translated into more than twenty languages. A Part II follow-up to Beretninger om beskyttelse (Tales of Protection) has been announced but is not yet completed.

Fosnes Hansen has also published poetry, and is a frequent contributor to contemporary public cultural debate.

Reviews

[Anna Matilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the catalyst for a 3am (remarkably accurate) palm-reading by a middle-aged Serbian taxi-driver.

After experiencing a particularly murky emotional patch, my Scandinavian mother passed this book to me, saying she thought I might like it.

I was so enlivened by the mystery and poetry of the first tale that I spoke to everyone I met about it. This included the cab driver who drove me home from a night out.

The place I had been to was only 20 minutes or so from my house, but as I told this man more about how excited this book made me, we ended up driving in circles around my neighborhood (he turned off the meter and said he would only charge the most nominal of fees for the fare), just so we could continue to talk about the thoughts raised by the initial story.

He then went on to tell me about his upbringing in a semi-traveller family, and his gypsy mother who had passed on some of her fey ways to him. Such a connection had blossomed between us through our conversation (we were several generations apart, and there was nothing more to the encounter than that of a spiritual meeting), that he then offered to read my palm for me. The information he shared shall remain with me for as long as I live.

If nothing else, this book made life more interesting while I was reading it!

[Peter Fogtdal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is on my top 5 of best books I ever read. Norwegian writer Erik Fosnes Hansen is a huge name in Scandinavia for a good reason: He's a master storyteller and a very original one as well. Here he tells four stories that are interwoven and connected - not in an obvious way, but I think it's fair to say that the key word here is ... you guessed it, protection. Read it, dammit.

[Rawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is an intriguing meditation on the nature of coincidence. Hansen suggests that there might exist "an underlying something, an active universal principle for life's coincidences, that manifests itself more often in some people." Even the most skeptic scientist, at some point, has undoubtedly had the hunch that maybe certain things in our lives happen for a reason and not just pure chance. Hansen takes this idea, calls it "serialization," attempts to provide logical proof for it, and creates 3 fictional stories where chance and coincidence are the central theme.

His style and structure are a bit puzzling. At one point he appeals to the logic of probability, discoursing on the Law of Large Numbers to explain why the number of dog bits in New York City will always average out to be about 75 per day. But then he gets mystical, asking how does each dog know it is time to bite, in order to meet the average daily quota. The result is an interesting mix of science and speculation. The stories are intriguing--Hansen makes you want to believe. But when he gets poetic and talks about "hearing the music behind the music," "being both inside and outside of time," or "feeling the collective will of the bees," it makes you scratch your head a bit.

I'll admit I probably ought to read this book again. The 3 stories take place in completely different places and times and I never really figured out how they are connected. Maybe that's not the point at all. Overall, I recommend this book for its entertainment value and though provoking content. It will definitely make you reexamine events in your life and look for patterns.

A really cool quote:

"How can all the small insects simultaneously know, without a brain, without knowing anything, that today they should visit this meadow, tomorrow that one? It's a question of knowing without knowing, and wanting without wanting. If you want something too intensely, things fall apart in your hands. You start to doubt everything. As soon as you let go, everything comes to you. Then you know, without knowing."

Words to live by.....

[Linda Vituma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vēl nēsāšu un domāšu sajūtu pēc izlasīšanas. Vēl ļaušu sev piedzīvot grāmatu klubiņa sarunu, lai noformulētu viedokli un palaistu grāmatu savā vaļā. Vēl ne.

[gorecki · Rating 2 out of 5]

After seeing all of the glowing reviews about this book, I am doubly bewildered. Once by the book I've just finished and then again by probably being one of the few people around here that did not get it or missed noticing something very important. All in all I think this was a bit too "artsy" for my taste.
Tales of Protection is a book that starts off very well and that got my expectations very high in the very first pages. After reaching a peak point in the first few chapters, though, my appreciation of the book started drastically falling down. It is a mosaic of three tales - one of a not very friendly elderly man, who, before he dies, takes in a young second or third cousin in, and helps her get back on her feet after being apparently a little bit emotionally unstable. The second tale is about the life and family of a lighthouse master on a small island in Sweden, more precisely about his daughter and aid. The third one goes back to the XV century and tells the tale of an art patron, a healing (and apparently not too beautiful) portrait of the Madonna, and an investigation about who painted it, when, and who was the model for it.
While the book has a lot of gems here and there, and some of the scenes are very enjoyable, interesting, and well-written, I somehow managed to miss the main point, the connection, the big picture. Yes, I did notice some of the coincidences between the tales, I've noticed some of the motifs that seem to appear in all of them (man-aid-girl, etc), but then again - what was all this about is still beyond me. One story starts, builds up, and just when you think you will get to the bottom of it, it snaps like a twig and another one starts. Then that goes slowly, it builds up, you start looking for a connection to the previous one or a continuation, until it suddenly snaps and a third one starts. All of this led me to have a constant feeling of expectation, of paying attention to details, before becoming bored by long pages full of conversations and descriptions that could have simply been left out as I didn't feel they add a lot of value to the plot. In the end, most of them turned out irrelevant and kept me looking too hard for an explanation and connection. At some point all of this just killed the pleasure of reading for me. Some time during the third tale I lost all interest and kept on reading only for the sake of finishing the book.

[Nona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore peter Hoeg, and this guy seemed to be his successor. All the traditional elements are there: the wild characters who evoke the Boer war, greenhouses in northern countries populated with talking apes and plants never before seen and a mystical pattern to life as revealed through old fashioned personalities and a stiff kind of rebellion.

It's compelling and thoughrally entertaining. But when a book sets it's premise as delivering the answer to coincidences, tragedy and life itself... well... you kinda wonder where the lyrical passages will end.

Did it "peter out" or am I supposed to assume that the answer is "there is no answer" or the brief moments of happiness/entertainment were the answer? Huh? Still quite pleasant.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of 4 stories, the first three of which are basically novellas. The connections between the four are pretty slim but it doesn't seem to matter much.

I found that one story more or less wiped out the memory of the one preceding it due to how deeply each succeeding tale drew me in.

The plots are not particularly noteworthy, so why do I rate this book so highly? It's the author's style. He has a great way with words and he knows how to tell a story. Before I was halfway through this collection I ordered his other book because I knew early on I'd enjoy it.

It's hard for me to explain exactly what the author does so well, but whatever it is, it resonates strongly with me. I recommend him.

[Katja Gottschewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasure to read; the language is beautiful. The central theme that permeates the whole book is how seemingly random events or actions fit together and create a non-coincidental whole. I also learned a lot about bees, lighthouses and baroque painting techniques! My only regret is that the second part has not been written yet.

I have read the book in Norwegian; I don't know how good the English translation is. Beautiful language is always difficult to translate in an equally beautiful way.

[Karīna Janova-Jannava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mana visu laiku mīļākā grāmata!

[Lara Reusch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was beautifully written and clearly well researched. However, there were times in which I felt the storytelling was forgotten for the sake of sharing interesting facts with the reader. Resulting in parts of the book reading more like an academic paper. But once the story got going, I became completely enveloped in these far away places and sometimes far away times. Hansen did a wonderful job of bringing places and people vividly to life. I felt the connections between the stories somewhat tenuous, however a highly enjoyable read nonetheless.

[Mandy Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book received great reviews, but for some reason was just a “meh” for me. I think if you’re into mathematics and science you would appreciate this book a lot more. It’s kind of fun figuring out how the stories all link together; I recommend reading in a quiet place with no distractions as parts of it are very dense and you could likely miss something pertinent otherwise.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the only fiction book about the principle of seriality that you find. I had never heard of this or the man who espoused it, Paull Kammerer. His studies led him to believe that seriality exists and is similar to light waves, with similar wave properties - peaks and valleys. Certain manifestations of probability/coincidence are the peaks of seriality, but the waves are always there. Our narrator, Wilhelm Bolt, has read Kammerer and is a believer as well. He latched on to this principle in his quest for a scientific explanation of why things happen – especially bad things. Specifically – why did he lose his wife and young child?

This book is about Bolt’s life and two past “connections” that he shares. Bolt begins this book lying in his coffin, dead, but very much aware of things going on around him, and narrating our story. In death, he now has memories beyond his own life. He will later explain “my recollections are not conventional memories, “ and refer to his as an “expanded concept of memory.”

When Bolt’s grandniece Lea plays the cello by his coffin, Bolt thinks “Many, many things have happened through the generations in order that the two of us should meet. Many things have happened so that we should lose each other. There’s a connection; it’s well hidden, but it’s there; it can be searched out by one who no longer has limbs or loins to drag around.” This connection is Bolt’s understanding of seriality.

We will learn that Bolt has written a manuscript of his own on seriality, which Lea finds after he has died. He writes “I have no conclusions to draw at the moment, other than that the material suggests there is, in addition to causality, an a-causal principle at work in the universe which strives toward unity, edification. My observations of Nature suggest this too.” This revealed to readers that Bolt’s interest in beekeeping was because of his interest in seriality.

Bolt spent much of his adult life a reclusive, angry man. He is happier lying in his coffin, because he believes his theories regarding seriality have been confirmed. He says that just by showing up at his mansion, Lea confirmed this. But then she does much more. Bolt’s death triggers Lea to eventually reach the same conclusion he had, and she repeats his same lines: “She can remember everything, even that which lies beyond her own experience. Everything that has happened, Thomas. We met each other and lost each other. Many things happened, over long periods of time, in order that the two of us should lose each other.” The loss of Thomas sent her life spiraling. A spiraling that led her to come to live with Bolt. A connection that supports Bolt’s a-causal principle at work in the universe.

With no body to hinder him, Bolt lets readers know he is now able to finally trace the hidden “connections” to his life. He will share four very detailed stories. The first and last stories are about his life. The first is his story with Lea. The final one is his history, we learn why he became an angry man. The second and third tales are ‘connections” in his history. He appears briefly in the second tale - the story of Josepha, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter. Josefa sees Bolt wandering along the beach – even though they live in different time periods. Bolt was born in 1912. Josepha was 14 in 1898. Yet, already in 1898 Bolt was an old man when he appears. Josepha realizes while looking at him, that he doesn’t belong here. She thinks he might be a ghost, as ghosts are frequently seen on the island. The author gives readers a “hint” about this encounter – having Bolt himself address the confusion of him appearing in this story “Don’t you understand? This is simply one of my memories. Simply a journey. I have to follow my tracks. My very specific tracks. You could say that remembering is my assignment.”

Bolt does not appear in the third story, which is set in Renaissance Rome, and the author does not reveal Bolt’s connection to these characters. Perhaps his connection is to the pivotal Madonna with Orange painting that is central to this story. Is there a connection to a similar Madonna with Orange painting in the Lighthouse island chapel of book 2, or is that just a coincidence? One character claims to be miraculously cured by the Italian painting, and Josepha claims that miracles occur when she sings in the chapel by the painting. Another coincidence?

The author chooses to leave much to the reader to figure out. For instance, some questions about Aid: characters allude that Aid has a drinking problem, but does he? When he was suffering from despair and contemplating suicide, the one thing that keeps him going is knowing that a great singing voice like the one he has lost could be inherited by his offspring. But he doesn’t have any children, does he? Hansen chooses not to divulge the secret Aid finally shares with Josepha. Is that secret why Aid chose to stay on the island all those years? Is Josepha the offspring that inherited his voice? If yes, it changes the whole meaning of this story. We are led to believe in this “tale of protection” that it was Kalle protecting Aid by not accusing him of negligence causing a shipwreck, but was it really Aid protecting Kalle from his secret with his wife? Bolt does answer some questions at the end the second story before moving on to the third tale. He tells readers that Aid will die within a year, and great things will happen for Josepha off the island. Bolt must know the whole story about Aid, but like the author, he chooses not to share it all.

Hansen has written a fascinating, but complex book here. He was able to weave well-researched details about bees, the Renaissance gilding process, the history of lighthouses, and the principle of seriality into his four stories about characters in different time periods and locations.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

picked up when desperate for a read in italy... absolutely loved the atmosphere, writing, and linked stories. i feel like i could & should read it again, and find more in it.

[Pierre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well the first story had me completely mesmerized, the second got me wondering what's the connection? The third fascinated me with the wonderful erudite knowledge about the old masters techniques but still wondering about a possible connection? The fourth one did connect to the first one but in no way connected with the second and third so why pretend otherwise? If a connection exists it is way too subtle for my small brain...All in all a pleasant experience marred by my expectation of more. Maybe whoever wrote the jacket blurb didn't read the book or was just pulling our legs.
One can always find connections between anything if one tries hard enough.

[Melli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leider fehlt noch Teil 2

[VG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst there were glimmers of interest in be found within these interconnected stories (novel? I struggled to discover exactly what this book was supposed to be), the whole felt fragmented, the themes too obscure and yet, bizarrely, repetitive. Perhaps something was lost in translation, but I finished this book wondering what the point was.

[Bent Andreassen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veldig god bebut. Men det ble visst ikke så mye mer av denne lovende forfatter.

[Bente Birkestøl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisk bok som setter spor i sjel og kropp og hode.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book from the library shelf on pure instinct, and was rewarded with the true pleasure of a transporting read. I was completely engrossed by the first tale of Lea and Engineer Bolt--a story infused with humor, tenderness and overtones of losses hinted at yet undescribed. These themes--especially that of loss--carry through the three other stories in the book and loosely unite them; although I think the book is overall closer to a collection of novellas than a novel. When I let go of the expectation of cohesion, I enjoyed each story more for its own qualities.

Tales of Protection is a book in the genre of magical realism, and Erik Fosnes Hansen does it masterfully. I think that writers of this genre often stray too far into the unbelievable, sometimes they weigh the fantasy down too much with justification. For the most part, EFH strikes just the right balance of the fantastical and the recognizable in this book.

What makes this book a slightly difficult read is not the quality of the writing, but the structure of the chapters. I found the first tale so engrossing that I wasn't ready for it to end and found it difficult to move on to the next chapter. By the time I fell in love with the characters of the second story, it was hard to move on to the third--and I never did engage with the third tale as well, even though it was the longest of the group. (The third was also the one that delved most deeply into explanation--at times I felt that I was reading an instruction manual on how to paint frescoes).

A truly beautiful book--a joy to discover.

[Ros · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the first 'tale' in this book but I'm afraid this writer is not for me. Just when I was beginning to warm to the main character the tale ended!
The story also has some bizarre features, such as being told from the perspective of two swifts circling above a church for a couple of pages, and then from the perspective of a dead man in a coffin for a little while before getting to the main character. I can't see the point of that - especially the swifts, they have nothing to do with the story.
The tale goes on to develop a pre-occupation with bee-keeping and hypes up an idea called 'serialization'. However, the examples of serialization were mostly lame. I quote, "Oslo. Law student Niels Peter Knudsen on 3/15/89 is assigned to Reading Room seat #15 at the University library. At 3 PM he goes to the Solli Plass post office; draws #15 in the waiting line. His sister turns 15 the next day." So a supposedly intelligent man devoted a lifetime of study to collecting examples of such things! Why? You can't control it! Its called coincidence not serialization! The whole thing is a bit ridiculous really.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I liked this...? Compared to all the glowing reviews left for book, I feel like I must be missing out on something. The writing, although dense, is beautiful, but... the plot? Was there any plot?! The stories individually were entertaining, although irritatingly always left without any sort of climax or resolution. There's supposed (I think) to be some sort of connection between the different tales, but what exactly it was passed me by; I think I must lack the brain-power to remember all the (or indeed, any) pertinent details. I've heard of comparisons between this and Cloud Atlas , but whereas Cloud Atlas worked for me because of the obvious thread weaving together all the parts, Tales of Protection remained too obscure for me to grasp any real sense of what it was actually about.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read much ScanLit; or works in translation for that matter. So I found this novel beautiful and intriguing, but uncomfortable, all the while not knowing if the discomfort stemmed from the original, from the translation, or from cultural misunderstanding. Hansen's story-telling is poetically masterful, with warm, multi-dimension characters who love strongly, yet are full of human failings and doubts. It's the novel's structure which is the source of the discomfort - he tells three completely separate stories, each with no apparent connection to the others, and none of which have a recognizably satisfying summation or conclusion. I suppose it is all in aid of his underpinning philosophy that Life is a bird - and one is the branch on which it alights, then flies away. However, that is Life - as a reader, I need closure, sunsets, "Roll credits, The End".
It turns out that there may be a sequel to Tales of Protection in the works; perhaps the endings will be in there.

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts of this book are wonderful but i found it difficult to get into overall. There are three main stories here - one about a girl and her grandfather who keeps bees and researches bizarre co-incidences, the second about the community living and working around a lighthouse and the third about artists in Renaissance Italy. There are fascinating historic and factual details about beekeeping, lighthouses and art. The characters are well drawn and their relationships are really well portrayed. Some if the writing is beautiful but I felt that the translation was not very elegant, which is probably a major reason I found it difficult to get into. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the section set in Italy, the details about painting techniques and the discussions about which techniques are best suited for religious paintings and why, were totally fascinating.

[Una · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ļoti dzīvi un krāsaini uzrakstīta grāmata, kuras centrā ideja par to, kā cilvēku dzīves cauri laikmetiem satuvina nejaušības, sauktas arī par likteni.
Vēstījums ārkārtīgi kolorīts. Viņam ir Sātana skatupunkts, intervija ar putniem, fantastiskās detaļās izzīmēta, piemēram, biškopība, renesanses laika mākslinieku ikdiena un dzīve 19. gs. bākas sarga ģimenē uz sīkas saliņas.
Interesanti pretstatījumi, par ko domāt: pienākums/jūtas, arī tas, ko nozīmē liela māksla - vai to rada ar tehniku un prātu, vai arī ar svētbijīgu kalpošanu un nenotveramu, pārpasaulīgu izjūtu.
Vienots romāns tas nav, varētu būt pagrūti izlasīt cauri, jo nezin cik reizes darbība sākas no jauna citā vietā ar citiem cilvēkiem (protams, pēc pirmajām dažām daļām kļūst skaidrs, ka cilvēki tikai šķietami ir citi, un šīm sakarībām izsekot ir zināmā īpašā veidā aizraujoši, bet jālasa katram pašam...).

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully beautifully written but , in my opinion, here there was fodder for 4 different books instead of each one of the tales being ended abruptly. The writing style of Erik Hansen deserves more than 5 stars but the way he choosed to present his stories was a little bit disappointing (at the moment you were engrossed by one of the tales, he abruptly, at the middle of a sentence, changed to another tale. I especially liked the data about bees and lighthouses being the second tale my favourite and my least favourite the third which I think it needed some pruning.

[Kim Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a sonata or perhaps nothern light. Moving, intellectual, and subtly layered in the way that Scandinavian writers and artists have mastered over time. The book was long and at times intense. It required time and patience to digest, to recognize the emerging pattern and see the relationships between stories...but was in every way worth it. This one will stick with me like poetry, in a way that novels often don't.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books I picked up at a $5 sale just because the cover looked intriguing. I'm so glad I did! The book was well-written and fascinating. The author reminds me of David Mitchell, and the book is vaguely like Cloud Atlas (vaguely). Three main plots lines are in the forefront, and each one completely sweeps you up. The only frustration is that you feel such a connection to the characters, and then that section ends!
A fascinating exposition on the nature of coincedences.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gaidīju, ko līdzīgu "Sievietei lauvai", nav.
Šī grāmata dalāma stāstos, kuros notikumi apskatīti un personas attēlotas, bet nepasakot visu, jo arī dzīvē sastopot draugu nevari pateikt, kas viņu izveidojis tādu. Tā arī grāmatā, tiek pavērts tikai priekškara stūrītis.
Ļoti patīk kā autors attēlo vienkāršas lietas padarot tās īpašas - sniega un iežu kristālu burvība, kalna iekšienes attēlojums, bāku vēsture un zeltīšanas tehnika, cik tas viss ir aizraujoši, prieks lasīt.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leste Fosnes Hansens 3 første: Falketårnet, Salme ved reisens slutt og Beretninger om beskyttelse under særemne i tredje gym. Etter å ha sett han snakke på TV som 17 åring var jeg solgt, mannen kan jo snakke om å kjøpe brød og allikevel få det til å høre som noe stort og heroisk. Beretninger... står sterkest av hans bøker for meg, og er en av de bøker jeg kan lese mange ganger.

[David Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive in its thoroughness, and sometimes dragged down because of it, the only thing more deft than Hansen's prose is his sense of meaning and optimism. Must read for anyone who thinks things matter.