The Ski Jumpers

by Peter Geye

A writer and former ski jumper facing a terminal diagnosis takes one more leap—into a past of soaring flights and broken family bonds

A brilliant ski jumper has to be fearless—Jon Bargaard remembers this well. His memories of daring leaps and risks might be the key to the book he’s always wanted to write: a novel about his family, beginning with Pops, once a champion ski jumper himself, who also took Jon and his younger brother Anton to the heights. But Jon has never been able to get past the next, ruinous episode of their history, and now that he has received a terrible diagnosis, he’s afraid he never will.



In a bravura performance, Peter Geye follows Jon deep into the past he tried so hard to leave behind, telling the story he spent his life escaping. It begins with a flourish, his father and his hard-won sweetheart fleeing Chicago, and a notoriously ruthless gangster, to land in North Minneapolis. That, at least, was the tale Jon heard, one that becomes more and more suspect as he revisits the events that eventually tore the family in two, sending his father to prison, his mother to the state hospital, and placing himself, a teenager, in charge of thirteen-year-old Anton. Traveling back and forth in time, Jon tells his family’s story—perhaps his last chance to share it—to his beloved wife Ingrid, circling ever closer to the truth about those events and his own part in them, and revealing the perhaps unforgivable violence done to the brothers’ bond.



The dream of ski jumping haunts Jon as his tale unfolds, daring time to stop just long enough to stick the landing. As thrilling as those soaring flights, as precarious as the Bargaard family’s complicated love, as tender as Jon’s backward gaze while disease takes him inexorably forward, Peter Geye’s gorgeous prose brings the brothers to the precipice of their relationship, where they have to choose: each other, or the secrets they’ve held so tightly for so long.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary

408 pages, Hardcover

First published September 13, 2022

About the author

Peter Geye is the author of the award-winning novels Safe from the Sea, The Lighthouse Road, Wintering, winner of the Minnesota Book Award, Northernmost, and The Ski Jumpers, forthcoming in September 2022.

Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PhD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He currently teaches the year-long Novel Writing Project at the Loft Literary Center. Born and raised in Minneapolis, he continues to live there with his family.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

While in his teens, Jon Bargaard, was a rising ski jumper, along with his younger brother, Anton. Their father had been a skilled jumper too and trained them well. Jon, now in his late 50s, is a novelist and had been working on a book about his family experiences called “The Ski Jumpers” but had set is aside. Recently diagnosed with early onset- Alzheimer's, he decides to try and finish the book, while his memory remains intact.

Shifting narratives, slowly unfold Jon’s story, covering their childhood in Chicago, their success in numerous tournaments, an unlikely connection with a gangster and their eventual move to Minnesota. There is a lot here and the author handles it all with finesse and knows exactly how to keep the pages turning, packing in adventure, romance and family drama. I love reading about the upper Midwest, (I would not like to live there) and I found it interesting that the frigid temps are never mentioned- Yep, written by a true Minnesotan. This is the third book I have read by Geye and he just keeps getting better.

[Lin Salisbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Geye has written five novels, three of them in a multigenerational saga that followed sixty years of the travails and trespasses of the Eide family from the fictional town of Gunflint, Minnesota. His newest novel, The Ski Jumpers, is the tale of Jon Bargaard, a novelist recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, who wants to tell one last story – one about his family – starting with Pops, once a champion ski jumper who taught Jon and his younger brother Anton the sport. Jon has spent a lifetime running from his family story and he wants to set it right before he is no longer able.

Every jumper knows the feeling – the stall – the moment, Geye writes, when you reach the perfect position, suspended in air like a bird on a gyre. But it’s the landing that counts. Jon has one last shot to make reparations to his brother, who won’t take his calls, and to make peace with the ghost of his father and the secrets that cleaved the family in two.

The novel opens with Pops and his pregnant lover fleeing Chicago for Minneapolis, with a notoriously ruthless gangster in pursuit. On a trip to visit their daughter in the North Woods, Jon tries to tell his wife Ingrid the truth about his past – a past that put his father in prison and his mother in an asylum – leaving eighteen-year-old Jon alone to care for his younger brother Anton.

The past is a slippery thing, and memory as elusive as the perfect telemark landing, especially when it is complicated by a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and a lifetime of hiding from the truth. Geye writes with a musicality that soars above the complex plot of The Ski Jumpers. The novel moves back and forth in time and place – moving from Duluth, where Jon and his wife currently live, to the North Woods of Minnesota where he visits his daughter and her partner, and to Minneapolis, where Jon and his brother Anton grew up skiing in Theodore Wirth Park and jumping from the Highland Ski Jump in Bloomington. If you’re a fan of arresting family dramas with a bit of a twist, complex and provocative characters, breathtaking landscapes wrapped in luminous prose, The Ski Jumpers is your next read.

This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my author interviews and book reviews on Superior Reads, WTIP Radio, Grand Marais, and on the web at wtip.org.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the author, love his books. Excellent story teller. Great writing. Story tells of a father who ski'd in Norway and he passes the love of the sport to his two boys, both excellent skiers. Tells of the bond skiing had for the family and the trials that happens during their lives. Does the bond last?

[Stephan Benzkofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have liked The Ski Jumpers more. Mainly set in Minnesota but with some colorful backstory in Chicago, this has much to draw me in. And while it is a typical family drama that unspools its secrets slowly, the ski jumping is a breath of fresh air. From page one, the protagonist talks about the ecstasy of flight, the exhilaration of catching wind and flying down a ski hill. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that thrill until nearly the end of this novel. It was almost enough to bring it up to four stars ... but not quite.

So this may have more to do with me and my distracted reading habits over the last two weeks, and I'm struggling to identify what this book lacked. It has memorable characters, the writing is very good and often better, the multiple story lines have heft. So what's missing?

What books have you read that seem to check all the boxes but never truly take flight?

[BethFishReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible family story that explores fathers and sons, brothers, and aging set within the Minnesota universe of Geye's earlier novels.

Some books resonate so much with me that I shy away from writing a review for fear of diluting my emotional connection with the characters and overall story. This is one of those novels. In fact, this is the case with all of Geye's books. Instead of a review or summary of this book, here some things I thought about while reading and after I finished:

--Male relationships are at the core, especially fathers and sons, but also brothers, best friends, and conflicted and complicated friendships or associations made in youth.

--As we age, facing unexpected loses and reforming our self-image, we mull over major life events, play what-ifs, and balance regrets and sorrows against the joys.

--Circumstances that form and inform one individual can have trickle-down effects on the following generation(s).

--What makes a good marriage? A good parent? A strong family?

--Life can change in a single moment, and sometimes we have more than one such single moment. How a person moves forward is colored by their past and by their current support system (or lack thereof).

--If I had a list of my favorite authors, Geye would be on it. As I've written before, his work is unforgettable and will be read for generations to come. 

The unabridged audiobook is read by Robert Fass, who perfectly caught the characters' emotions, fears, and personalities. At one point, Fass subtly and believably renders breathlessness, deepening my connection to that scene. An A+ audio.

Thanks the publisher for a digital review copy. The audio was in my personal library.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is filled with So. Much. Angst. I found it difficult to keep going as the same few actions were mulled over again and again. I wanted to shout "get on with it". I think it would be a better book if it was about 1/3 shorter.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I loved the characters, the setting (can’t go wrong with northern MN as a setting), and the overall storyline, the plot wasn’t as engaging as previous books by this author. I never felt hooked or determined to find out what happened. I finished for the sake of finishing and reading about MN.

[Barb Seaberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of back and forth in this book, flashing to the deep past, the more recent past and the future, which I found a bit hard to follow. And what a tragic story. Too many lives stained and ruined by a tragic event capped off with Jon’s grim future ahead of him and his wife Ingrid; there was little uplifting about these pieces of the story. What I loved was the ski jumping and the camaraderie of Jon, Anton and Pops as they set off on their jumping expeditions. Reminded me so much of my youth and my ski trips with my family. A complicated story, beautifully written but with much violence, hatred, child abuse that showed the ugliest sides of life.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written book. The nonlinear timeline could be a little hard to follow at times, but overall it allowed the story to unfold in a way that kept readers interested. Loved the setting. Would read more from this author.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ski Jumpers is a heartwrenching novel about familial relationships and, of course, ski jumping. The novel jumps back and forth in time, in a way that truly feels like someone describing their memories. After a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's, protagonist Jon Bargaard revisits his past, and readers get to tag along. His life was full of both pain and joy, and it made for an engrossing read. The thoughtfully described depictions of ski jumping were the icing on the cake in this deep novel by Peter Geye.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a dialogue in The Ski Jumpers where someone wonders if anyone would read a novel about ski jumping. Heck, yeah! Translate this into Finnish (or Norwegian), and it'll sell like grilled sausage. In the Nordic countries, ski jumpers are the absolute athletic royalty, only behind race car drivers.

That is, I really think, a good idea, but also, as another character points out, The Ski Jumpers, like the novel with the same name which the first-person narrator of this actual novel is stalled on, is not about ski jumping. Or not only. Or not mainly. It's about the themes Peter Geye's novels are about: the shadow of the past on the present, on family relationships, on the nature of work, of ambition and of aspirations, and on truth and lies. Simplistic categories, those last two, as the novel makes clear.

Yet another character tells the narrator she feels his novels speak to her, despite big differences in the explicit themes. That's how I feel about Geye's novels in general. Here, the themes that resonate with me are about the relationship with brothers (although mine with my brother is probably not at all like the one Jon and Anton have) and a really complicated relationship of the brothers with their parents. Given that my life and my relationships have very little actual parallels to Geye's characters', I think it's less about details than about the social emotions he is so good at that resonates. It's like horoscopes and fortune cookies, but with substance, not bullshit: somehow Geye can describe how people relate to others in a way that makes them think it's familiar and — here's the best part — he does it with the sort of kindness that makes you recognize the humanity and worth of the people who might feel estranged from or wish they would burn in hell. (Disclaimer: I have never felt any of my immediate family members should burn in hell. No comment on extended family, though.)

This is cryptic, I realize, so another way of describing the novel is to say it's a reflection of a life that is facing likely rapid decline (a devastating diagnosis for our narrator) that has some of unreconciled business about family history (who killed whom? who lied about what?) and about two brothers who are talented athletes in very different ways.

Heck, just read it.

A minor side note about Geye's novels resonating for me so much: maybe we just share an aesthetic taste. In Northernmost, there was a reference to First Aid Kit, and in this novel, a quick one to Jason Isbell. Either he is stalking my Spotify playlist or we just like the same kinds of music. Is there an affinity group for middle-aged midwestern dudes of Nordic descent or identity who don't like macho bullshit but who aren't Knausgaard?

[Lee Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Geye is a Minnesota author that has written some excellent novels. (I am thinking, in particular, of his Eide Family trilogy: The Lighthouse Road, Wintering, and Northernmost.)

In The Ski Jumpers, he brings us Jon Bargaard, an author facing Alzheimer’s, whose family history is bound to ski jumping. This history is also one filled with lies and deception that seem to be, more often than not, simply the result of misfortune and difficult choices rather than a lack of love. Jon also wishes more than anything to be able to somehow heal the shattered relationship with his brother.

I am not a ski jumper, nor has it ever appealed to me, but the author has done a marvelous job of making me feel each jump and understand the need to jump. I guess that is not so strange, in that he started jumping as a child, was quite skilled, and currently is coaching the sport in Minneapolis. His love for the sport is obvious.
I truly enjoyed reading this book! How much, you ask? I am hoping that my almost-5-year-old granddaughter will give it a go. See https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...

[Lizanne Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Bargaard comes from Minnesota where his father taught him and his brother from a young age to ski jump. As Jon has received a diagnosis that will change his life completely, he unburdens himself and seeks to find true reconciliation with his brother. As Jon tells his truth he finds that much of what he previously believed about his mother was actually false.

This is a complicated book with so much going on. People are complicated. Our stories are complex. Peter Geye demonstrates this vividly with Jon Batgaard. There was a lot to enjoy in this story. I particularly loved the descriptions of ski jumping: flying.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read all three of the Eide family trilogy I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book. I don’t know anything about ski jumping except what I’ve seen on television.

As always Peter Geye is a brilliant storyteller. He’s my favorite author to describe winter, especially winter’s in Minnesota.

The fictional history of the Bargaard family was very well told and I enjoyed reading the character development.

After finishing the book I went back to research the timetable, specifically when Jon, the narrator, is in the present era (2019.)

As I mentioned, in the beginning, I read all three of the Eide trilogy so I loved the reference to Greta Eide, now an author at a book launch gathering.

I’ve put a hold on “Safe at the Sea” at the library.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always fun to read a book set in a familiar place. (Hey, I know that street! I've been to that park!) So this book, with its Minneapolis backdrop, was enjoyable, but the family secrets and underlying conflicts were SO melodramatic. It got to be a bit much.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5. I loved parts of the book and lost patience with other sections. The ski jumping and Duluth chapters were the best.

[Beachbumgarner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Geye just keeps getting better! I read the Eide family trilogy and really enjoyed it. With this one, I was a bit worried that the ski jumping descriptions would be too technical (and thus less interesting in the creative rendering), but that was absolutely not true. Apparently, if you have enough love and respect for anything, you can render it artistically, from ski bindings to the shape and build of a ski jump.

Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I very much liked the breaks in the chronology. At one point, Johannes, the main character who is a writer, says that what he looks at most closely are the life changing moments in people's lives and whether or not they are prepared for them. In this story, the secrets reveal themselves after people have lived with them and their consequences for years, but who were these people when these moments struck, and how did they move on from them? Exploring that requires a very different timeline, and Geye did a brilliant job of following that thread as the mind would, not time itself.

One of the things I appreciate most about Geye's writing is how he writes Winter. In his work, when a door opens, he acknowledges the cold blast of air the comes with it, and that it smells like the lake or the city, how it is trapped in the coat coming off the person who walked in, how the snow is melting from the boots they are taking off. Many authors are anxious to get on with plot when someone walks through the door, but Geye sticks with atmosphere, the full picture. In his work, I often think of Winter as a character all on its own. Needless to say, I was raised in MN and I get back there fairly often to visit friends and family. No one makes me homesick for Winter like Peter Geye, something I never thought I could be!

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a slow and steady for me. I took my time with this literary fiction novel as it’s not one to rush through. It’s a story of a family torn apart by a single event followed by years of avoidance and secrets. At the beginning of the book, Jon Bargaard, receives a devastating diagnosis and begins to look back on his life and his broken history with his family. As Jon contemplates his future he knows he needs to tell the true story of his past to his wife, Ingrid, and try to heal the relationship with his brother. I loved the contemporary storyline with Jon, his daughters and his wife. There are some interesting stories to tell there that we just got a peek at.

It’s told in several timelines, which at times had quick transitions. And yes, there is a lot of ski jumping. Jon, his father and brother were all competitive ski jumpers and there are descriptions that make you feel like you are jumping right alongside them. The way it’s written feels very autobiographical although it’s not a memoir. But you know as you read that the author loves ski jumping as much as these characters.

Overall, I really liked this one! I recommend this to a reader who enjoys character driven stories about complicated family relationships with a literary feel. Think The Dutch House only with ski jumping. I’ll definitely be reading more from Peter Geye!

[Barbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.67* rounded up. Geye has become one of my favorite writers - he is so adept at describing family relationships (parent/child, siblings), the slow process of aging, memory and moving on with life - as well as cold winter scenes. I had almost rounded down on this one to 3* since I think the narrative jumped around a bit too much (present day, five years ago, 40+ years ago, 65 years ago...), which made keeping track of the linear narrative tricky at times (but that's memory, isn't it?) and the book seemed too long at some points, although I was left wanting more. I also was comparing it to Geye's other works, and while this isn't my favorite of Geye's books (I loved Safe From the Sea the most), his writing is beautiful and resonates with me and had me teary eyed by the end. I really didn't know much about ski jumping, so those parts were very interesting and insightful. It was also fun to have small glimpses of a few characters from Geye's other works and see what they are up to (no need to have read those other books).

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ski Jumpers isn't really about ski jumpers even though the sport provides an interesting and unusual backdrop to the story. Jon's family has quite a past; gangster activity, a murder, estranged sisters, an unknown half sister, a mother whose mental illness is never clearly explained. It all comes to a head as Jon is facing a difficult diagnosis. Time is running out and so on a road trip, he relays secrets he has withheld from his wife for decades. Clearly, a road trip isn't the place to do that but he does. Maybe that action is already a sign of diminishing judgment. The book is also about Jon as the author who has put off writing The Ski Jumpers. Authors putting a version of themselves in their own book seems like a trend. Much of the prose is well done but some of the story repeats. I found myself thinking, can I get through this chapter? How many more pages are there. That's why it is a three and not a four for me.

[Jamie Lindemulder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that I was a little nervous starting it because I don't really care about sports. There is a bunch of talk about ski jumping, but it's so much more. I'm so glad I read it because it turned out to be one of the best books I have ever read (easily in my top 10 books).

Here is the quick synopsis:

"This is a thrilling novel about the dream of ski jumping, the precariousness of a family’s complicated love, and the tenderness of a backward gaze while disease takes one inexorably forward. Peter Geye’s gorgeous prose brings two brothers to the precipice of their relationship, where they have to choose: each other, or the secrets they’ve held tightly for so long."

This book will make you reflect on your own life, and think about the type of relationships you have with people.

[Robyn Swenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not like this book at first. It jumped around too much and tried to hook the reader with comments like “that fateful night”. However, as the characters developed and the last fateful night continued, I really connected to the Minnesota landmarks, the beauty of learning and enjoying a sport, and the staying power of complex family relationships. There were several descriptions that were just flat out beautiful- the North Shore views of the lake, the ski jumping details, the night of cross country skiiing through the city in a blizzard, etc… I think the theme that really struck me was the idea of how we must incorporate our good and bad memories into our lives, instead of pushing them away or glorifying them. And to do so while there is still time.

[Roger Scherping · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have been much better if it had been told chronologically. It's like the author wrote the scenes, shuffled them like a deck of cards, and laid them out in random order. Frequently something would be referenced in one chapter that wasn't explained until the next. In fact, the whole book felt like it was told in reverse order. Also, the tone of the book was so varied. It was mostly deep, philosophical life thoughts, but then it unexpectedly took a hard turn to subjects like substance abuse, parental neglect, child abuse, and even murder. I constantly felt unsettled by the chronological and tonal changes. Finally, there is no way a 15-year old would have been convicted of murder in those circumstances. That inconsistency ruined a lot of what the author was trying to convey.

[Margaret Hoff]

I’ve decided not to rate this book. I am conflicted. I fell in and out of love with the characters and the plot over and over. But never fell out of love with the writing. As always, superb. There was just something about the unsavoriness of some of the characters; the cruelty, the indifference to the human condition, that didn’t seem to “fit” with the setting and the forward motion of this novel. For me, anyway. I believe I am in the minority. Certainly, the back story explained a lot about the current health of family relationships. I just didn’t somehow buy in to the backstory. I LOVED the images of these young boys and their ski-jumping escapades. Great imaging. The last 100 pages got me hooked for good and I just need to reflect before I add any stars.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh, this book makes you want to call everybody you love and tell the how important they are to you, spend all the time you can living in the moment with your people. It was a really well told story, mostly about a man looking back on his life through a new lens after just being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The story unveils family secrets and grudges, regrets and dreams that were never realized. I almost knocked a star off because it was rather sad, but that seemed unfair. The lighter parts of the book talked about ski jumping which was fun to learn about and it is always fun to read a book set in your home state. I would recommend to anybody who likes books with slowly uncovered secrets, a touch of gangster/mob boss plot lines, and complicated family dynamics.

[Anne Twiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about ski jumpers and a guy who should write a book about ski jumpers among other things, such as the eternal conflict between bothers and fathers and sons. It is full of family secrets revealed a little bit at a time and Peter Geye is a master at multi-generational narrative. It is Shakespearean and Noir and Sports Illustrated and Poetry all at once. A few characters from previous novels appear in cameos, although it is a complete and separate story. Lessons: Tell your story before it’s too late, and check those clips on yours skis before you go off the high jump in the fog.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a richly layered book. We learn about the Bargaard family -- namely Jon, his brother, Anton, and father, Pops. We learn Pops' backstory -- he was a champion ski jumper and got caught up with a rough crowd in Chicago. Jon and Anton are trained in ski jumping as well, and the sport bonds the three. But Jon and Anton drift apart over the years. Is it too late to repair family relationships? I was drawn in by the exquisite writing. The back-and-forth narrative kept me turning the pages. I finished this book before Christmas while looking over the snowy woods of northern Minnesota. I could not ask for a better book to read by a warm fire!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another winner from Minnesota author, Peter Geye as he weaves a fascinating tale about two brothers and their father mired in family struggles and bouyed by a shared sport that depends on grace, poetry and pure guts. Two reasons for picking up this book, and one was the author himself. Seems I've read all of his books: Safe from the sea, The Lighthouse Road, Wintering and Northernmost. The second was the sport itself, for over the years I've photographed ski jumping competitions and have been intrigued with the beauty of flight. Geye does not disappoint. This is one hell of a good book and is wholly recommended!

[Dorinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always been fascinated with ski jumping--only as an observer -- so close to flying, what must it feel like and what are they thinking? Geye answers those questions as his characters who are accomplished jumpers, and perhaps as himself since he jumps himself. Geye's ability with language displayed in his prior books continues here, as does the strong evocation of a very specific place. There are places in the narrative that the writer and reader seem to hurtle through time and space like a jumps even when it is not describing a jump at that particular point.

[Louise Behrendt Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. There was both enough and too much of the ski jumping, and it took both too long and as much time as necessary to learn about Jon, his brother Anton, and beloved father Pops, navigating their way through mobster intrigue in Minneapolis, mental illness, and debilitating disease. In the hands of this talented author, there were moments of pure beauty in the love by a father for his sons, and the amazing feat of soaring through the air on a pair of skis. More like three and a half stars.