· an intriguing story featuring all of the Petterson quirks — charm, melancholy, loneliness, the rifts between parents and children, the bonds between siblings and friends

Beautifully written and understatedly uplifting, It's Fine By Me is an essential read

Beguiling and beautiful… a gripping and subtle coming-of-age story, ripe with melancholy… graceful and moving

Executed with not only a magical attention to detail but also with heart-swelling affection... page after page of clear, glitchless and truthful writing

A movingly observed story about growing up

A brilliantly vivid piece of storytelling

Atmospheric coming-of-age tale by one of Norway’s most renowned writers

The detail is perfect; the emotions are raw and beautifully conveyed

Petterson’s novel is a compelling study… Petterson’s beautifully spare prose subtly captures the effort that comes with this seeming inaction, this lack of fight, providing us with a lens through which we come to see Audun’s grim inertia as a paralyzing struggle to forget the past and get on with the task of living

Beautifully crafted but undeniably bleak; its spare prose, mournfully succinct characterisation and disorientating chronology deliver an edgy read

Melancholic