The Princes of Pauper's Pond by Lars Elling, t Don Bartlett #princesofpauperspond @lars_elling_artist @orendabooks #norway #litfic #historical #translatedfiction

 

1985. Nineteen-year-old Filip spends his days playing football, listening to music on his Walkman and drawing, searching for something he cannot yet name. He lives in a large family house shared with his grandparents, where an old rift between his grandfather Arnstein and Arnstein's brother Truls still governs the atmosphere. The cause appears trivial, an apple tree dropping fruit across a boundary fence, but the bitterness between the brothers speaks of something far older and deeper.

1912. With Europe on the brink of upheaval, Arnstein and Truls are sent into the forest for the summer by their stern father, determined that his sons should learn to endure hardship. Left to fend for themselves among travellers, log drivers and Forest Finns, the brothers live from the land, fishing, hunting and roaming the vast woodland. Cold and hungry, yet bound together by fierce loyalty and affection, they crown themselves the princes of Pauper's Pond, rulers of a world shaped by freedom, imagination and shared struggle. Until, back home, their father makes a decision that will change everything.

Spanning generations, The Princes of Pauper's Pond is a vibrant, magical and deeply affecting novel about brotherhood and belonging, about finding joy and love in the open landscape, and about those single moments that can seal a family's fate … forever…

For readers who love Maja Lunde, Per Petterson, Benjamin Myers, Claire Keegan and Maggie O'Farrell.

The Princes of Pauper's Pond by Lars Elling is published by Orenda Books on 24 September 2026, and is translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

Oh, this book! The Princes of Pauper's Pond is a novel that just seemed to creep up on me. I became so involved with these characters and their complicated family history, and there is something particularly emotional about knowing that Lars Elling has based the story on true events.

The author takes us between two time lines. In 1985, nineteen-year-old Filip is living in the family home with his parents and grandparents. His grandfather Arnstein and Arnstein's brother Truls live close to one another, yet haven't spoken for years. There is an apple tree involved in their ongoing feud, but it soon becomes obvious that a few pieces of fallen fruit cannot possibly account for so many years of anger and resentment.

We then travel back to 1912, when Arnstein and Truls are boys. Their stern father sends them off into the forest for the summer, expecting them to fend for themselves and learn about hardship. What follows is a such a wonderful portrayal of childhood freedom. The brothers fish, hunt and roam through the Norwegian wilderness, and meet all sorts of people along the way. They're resourceful, mischievous and sometimes reckless, but most of all they're brothers, fiercely loyal to one another.

I loved these sections. Elling is also an artist, and I think you can really see that in his writing. The landscape is so vivid that I could picture the forests and water, almost feel the cold and damp and smell the trees. There are moments of real beauty, but Elling never romanticises the boys' experiences. Life can be harsh and sometimes brutal.

Running underneath everything is the knowledge that something happened to these two boys. We know the elderly Arnstein and Truls are estranged, but Elling takes his time in showing us how a childhood bond could become so fractured. That knowledge adds real poignancy to their adventures.

Don Bartlett's excellent translation deserves a huge mention too. Translated fiction can only work when the English feels completely natural while retaining the character of the original, and Bartlett achieves that beautifully here. The humour, tenderness and lyricism all shine through.

This is not a book to rush. It's one to settle into and allow the characters and landscape to work their magic. A moving, sometimes funny, sometimes painful story about brothers, fathers and sons, memory, regret and the strange things that families carry with them through the generations.

I thought it was quite wonderful. Highly recommended. 

Lars Elling (b. 1966) is a writer and a visual artist. He is the author of two picture books and has also illustrated several children’s books. Together with Bjørn Sortland he won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1996 for the book Red, Blue and a Bit of Yellow, which he illustrated. Elling has had exhibitions in Berlin and New York and his works have been acquired by Norway’s National Museum and the Council of Culture. 

The Princes of Pauper’s Pond is his first novel.

Don Bartlett completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbø and Gunnar Staalesen’s Varg Veum series: We Shall Inherit the Wind, Wolves in the Dark and the Petrona award-winning Where Roses Never Die. He also translated Faithless, the previous book in Kjell Ola Dahl’s Oslo Detective series for Orenda Books. He lives with his family in a village in Norfolk.