The novel debut by the Norwegian creator Oliver Lovrenski | EUROtoday

Drugs shoot medication at lunchtime, combine within the stays within the night and out of the blue the “feelers get” at evening – that’s on a regular basis life in Oliver Lovrenski’s debut “Brother if we are not a family, who then”. The novel of the then 19-year-old gained the Norwegian bookseller prize in 2023, now he will probably be launched in German at Hanser Berlin. Lovrenski tells of Ivor, who has Croatian and Polish roots, the Somalier Marco, the Indian -born Arjan and the “potato” Jonas. From 13-year-old faculty cocks, addicted sellers who get 14 knives turn into pistols. The plot feels like a socially crucial reconnaissance prose, which might turn into younger males on the sting of society. But there may be extra: Lovrenski skilfully interlinks gangster clichés with male sensitivity. Linguistic tops break by way of the yard jargon in Ivors’s stream of consciousness.

The 4 flee from their damaged households into their males’s affiliation, violent excesses face tender passages, even stab wounds and suicidal ideas snort away collectively. Anyone who can overlook girls’s contempt when studying concerning the clumsy snort laughs. Lovrenski writes pop literature. None that impresses with references to music, manufacturers or social media, though all of this happens, however by way of ease. Pop, strictly talking hip-hop, is within the type: the short change between straight traces and punchlines and within the sound.

The translator Karoline Hippe has transferred the language combine excellently into German. Reading him is nice enjoyable. American and Arabic idioms encounter Croatian knowledge and Somali slang. Some of it’s translated within the glossary. Such as “Tihare”, somal for “wanker”. This is the title of different drug sellers or unwilling prospects who “clap” the group. At the newest by way of your personal phrases of the 4, akin to “Candy Flip” – a mix of sure medication – you then enter a world of latest characters.

Does the creator come from such a world? Lovrenski, born in 2003 and closely tattooed, seems to be like a really perfect occupation for street autofiction. Like Ivor, the principle character of his e book, he grew up because the son of a Croatian in Oslo, however not like his protagonist, not within the migrant periphery, however within the stylish westend Oslos and together with his father, the author Håvard Rem. Perhaps Lovrenski is extra like his readers from the center and higher class, who’re questioning how such a brutal youth may really feel.

The query of the creator’s avenue credibility steps again behind the type of the narrative, with which Lovrenski entered new territory. His work consists of round 2 hundred fragments, which he claimed to have largely written on his smartphone. They are harking back to social media posts or rap songs. Sometimes they’re just one sentence lengthy, typically an entire web page and appear made for the quick consideration span of the Tikok technology. The fragments come from with out factors and capital letters. For this, every of them has a title akin to “Polo”, “Young stupid love” or “Pretty Fly”. Do you type a novel?

Yes, as a result of Lovrenski tells how the 4 faculty associates turn into adults. The first sentence anticipates the demise of one of many characters. In between it goes again to the childhood of the boys. When Ivor loses his beloved “Baba” (grandmother), he rejects his dream of turning into knowledgeable boxer and later the concept of ​​bringing it as a lawyer to wealth. One of essentially the most lovely tales describes how he and Marco turn into brothers by disturbing faculty classes. Marco is definitely referred to as Leban and is the star of the e book together with his temper swings. The two are harking back to the rap duo Celo & Abdi. They blended on albums akin to “rental car tape” or “backyard jargon” of their hymns to the Frankfurt drug scene Bosnian and Moroccan slang.

Ivor and Marco places Lovrenski Arjan apart, who might be homosexual and grows up with an addictive mom. Then there may be Jonas. The stuttering Norwegian should take his father’s blows and the ridicule of his three associates. The 4 go away the varsity, sports activities membership and social staff on the left, desire to drag out cell telephones from younger folks within the park or combine coks by way of Snapchat. The likelihood of “para” (Arabic: cash) units the tempo. Lovrenski lets his characters seem in a sitcom. While Jonas threatens a “Macker” with a machete, he says to his grandma on the telephone: “I love you too”.

As within the rap, there’s a punchline on the finish of most miniatures, a punch line that reverses the which means of what has been mentioned earlier than or insults others. In the story “Lamb’s leg and everyday racism”, the query of what the 4 need to eat turns into the “Basically Fatest Beef in Human History”, the warfare for the most effective dwelling nation. Indian, somal, Croatian? Jonas calls “his cute beep voice” insulted: “Lamb’s leg is n national court her racist.” Even if the shock impact of this construction is sporting out, it repeats the dynamics of relationships of the 4. Desperation, loneliness and happiness can solely be expressed in entrance of one another by Jokes. You do not must grew up on the road in order that this sample of male friendship appears acquainted.

It is a macho and gangster world. Women by no means seem as platonic associates, solely as involved moms, good grandmothers and most frequently merely as “chayas” (ladies) who need to tear open. “Capitalchayas” known as wealthy ladies: “We are at a party at a capital chaya in her parents’ villa with a sauna and fat garden, it is winter, snow everywhere in the garden and the noses.” Marco notably seems Misogyn, has a number of “pills afterwards” at events as a result of he hates condoms. Ivor claims to be a romantic, however lets his greatest buddy grant.

Sometimes Lovrenski spells interpretations kitschy: “We say nuts, then we don’t have to say mom, nuts complain … mom is afraid for me.” The scholar Ayla, by which I fall in love with, says: “What you call memories are trauma.” However, the rap traces all the time differ from a delicate, boring social pedagogy just like the 4 boys their drug assessments. Nevertheless, Lovrenski makes no secret of the truth that they’re lovable varieties in a beautiful method. They do not need to be a sufferer: “You will be taken hops, or if you are hoping, you’re done, done, Khalas.” Oliver Lovrenski varieties brutal, typically tender textual content miniatures, mixed by a youth language, related by an amazingly coherent poetic line. If ultimately you now not snort at Ivors Flachwitzen, the three remaining boys look again on the shards of their youth.

Oliver Lovrenski: “Brother, if we are not a family, who then”. From the Norwegian of Karoline Hippe. Hanser Berlin, 256 pages, 22 euros