Nina Ring Aamundsen

Twelve-year-old Jonas Oliver Bakken struggles to understand his best friend Einar in this brief Norwegian children's novel, while also reaching out to befriend Hewad, a new boy of Afghani descent who has moved to his neighborhood. Although they spend almost every day together, Jonas comes to realize that he doesn't know Einar as well as he thought he did after an early morning trip to downtown Oslo, in which the boys meet a street girl named Vera, with whom Einar seems to have a history. Einar refuses to explain his connection to Vera, just as he resists speaking of his parents, killed years before in a car accident, and Jonas only makes things worse by inquiring. Will Jonas ever manage to figure things out? And why does Einar seem so resentful of Hewad...?

Originally published as To korte og en lang, and translated into English by the author, who has worked as an English teacher in the past, Two Short and One Long is a book I first read a number of years ago, and then mostly forgot about, until I stumbled across it again recently. Somehow, I had it in my mind that the central issue was one of friendship across ethnic lines, and that Jonas' new relationship with Hewad was the driving force of tension in the story. As it turns out, the real issue is Einar's history - the death of his parents, and the trauma caused by the authorities, who took him away from his loving grandparents and put him in a foster home where he didn't want to live. The plot-line involving Hewad, although important, is secondary, and the issue of racism is only really explored toward the end of the book, when the three boys confront a violent drunk who attacks them. That said, I do think that the story encourages the reader to consider the possibility that Einar's resistance to friendship with Hewad is motivated by prejudice. The resolution, in which it is revealed that Einar is simply frightened of losing one more person he loves, subtly highlights the idea that it is a mistake to think one can understand another person's true feelings and motivations, in the absence of any evidence.

Originally published in 1987, this story depicts refugees who fled from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, rather than the more recent flood of people who have been arriving in Europe since 2015. The narrative takes a positive view of Hewad and his family, who are depicted as integrating quite well. They speak fluent Norwegian, albeit with an accent, something addressed by Jonas when he enlists his father to speak in the Kapp dialect, which he (the father) grew up using, and which can be difficult, even for other Norwegians to understand. I appreciated Aamundsen's approach here, and I liked that she emphasized the idea of integration as something to be encouraged, although I wonder whether that sentiment has changed at all in Norway, given recent events. On the one hand, you have people who resist the idea of accepting any migrants, but on the other, you have those who claim (as in a recent article in The Guardian) that expecting migrants to assimilate into their adopted countries is somehow problematic. Neither approach seems to me like a particularly constructive or positive approach to immigration.

Leaving those issues aside, while brief, this was an engaging book, and although I think it tries to do a little too much in too few pages, I also think Aamundsen displays a sensitive appreciation for the child perspective, as well as a delightful sense of humor. I'm rather sad to note that this is the only children's book she has ever published - I'd definitely read more by her, if it were available.… (más)