Dimensions
149 x 210 x 23mm
In the late 1970s, a pyromaniac runs amok in rural Norway. Who among the close-knit community could burn down homes, causing such fear and anguish? As the fires rage, and the police establish a crisis unit in the village, a baby boy is christened: Gaute Heivoll.
Before I Burn is a tense psychological drama; a fictional exploration of Norway's most dramatic arson case. Who was the man setting houses ablaze and why did he do it? What about the boy who was born amid the flames and has lived with the stories of the fires? By juxtaposing the pyromaniac's story with his own, Gaute Heivoll lays bare the insanity that lies just beneath the surface of the human psyche, and the triggers that may flip any of us into madness. Written in fluid, vivid prose, and with a shattering honesty and humanity, Before I Burn is a literary sensation.