A Norwegian youth searches for his past. How did his parents actually die and what happened to him, then a little boy, whom was traveling with them? The journey will lead him towards adulthood, love and acceptance of realities that are not easy to accept. But this is life.

Honestly, it's long and drawn out story. Which wouldn't be so bad, but the story doesn't actually bring anything new. It is de facto a "coming of age" story, when a 25-year-old boy turns into a man. It is better than ordinary leisure literature and it can offer the engaging descriptions of nature and life in Norway, the Shetland Islands or in France occupied at the time by the Nazi, as well as interesting information about wood processing and trade. But under that beautiful, almost lyrical language, there is not so much nutrition and the story lacks a deeper content.
The romance is written from a "typically male" stereotypical point of view (in quotation marks, because I don't like such stereotypizing myself) - Edvard exchanges his current girlfriend for a more sophisticated Gwen, about whom he knows almost nothing - and that mystery makes her interesting to him throughout the story. Good at the beginning, but is that enough for a mutually enriching partnership?
It is a pity. Verdict on the book - not bad, but not an exceptional read either.

This was a very different setting for me. I loved getting a good description of Norway and The Shetland Islands. I near realised now close they are!
The long term impact of landscape and trees, not just people. WWI left its scars on people, families, and landscape.
I was kind of tickled when shortly after reading this book one of my sons came home from school with an art work where they had attempted a reproduction of an artwork featuring birch trees.

Absolutely beautiful prose and intensely moving. Shot through with larger ruminations on the natural world and our place within it, I found this book intensely compelling.

Trees and wood are at the heart of this unusual and intriguing Norwegian novel. The English title suggests it’s about the First World War but I prefer the Norwegian title which is Swim with Those Who Are About to Drown, which to me is far more suggestive of the mystery the book is all about. A mystery that Edvard, a young farmer in a small Norwegian town feels impelled to uncover, a mystery about his family and his parents who died in an accident in France when he was just 4 and whose destiny still haunts him. His quest takes him on a journey to the Shetland Isles – which, I was fascinated to discover, once belonged to Norway, and which had particularly strong links with Norway during WWII – where he meets Gwen who is also involved in the mystery. There are many layers to this book – romance, family feuds, the love of wood and craftsmanship, old antipathies and the legacy of the Second World War, and as the layers peel away more mysteries are uncovered. Overall I found the book absorbing and I certainly wanted to discover the truth but at times the momentum lapsed and occasionally the characterisation and dialogue felt a little stilted. It is perhaps overly long yet in a way I quite enjoyed the slow pace which seemed to reflect Edvard’s life in rural Norway. The sixteen trees of the title, so integral to the plot, were invented by the author but coincidentally there was indeed a line of trees that survived the fighting, and the metaphor of trees being witnesses to history I found compelling.

Since his parents died under mysterious circumstances Edvard has lived with his Grandfather Sverre on a remote farm in Norway. Shunned by the local villagers due to his wartime record Sverre is a recluse, but when he dies a beautiful coffin arrives, apparently from his estranged brother Einar. Einar was supposedly killed in the second world war but there seem to be links to Edvard's past and he decides to go investigate the truth. This journey takes him from Norway to Shetland and on to France, an exploration of horrors from two wars and love and betrayal both past and present.

To try to place this book into a genre is very difficult as it spans so many. There are elements of a thriller, a romance, an historical novel and also literary fiction, all of these combine to a wonderful narrative. The overwhelming themes are of love and loss, all the characters are passionate about something but the truth means different things to each. Whilst very sad in places I also felt a real sense of optimism, particularly in the ending which goes against the grain for plot development but felt completely right given the tone of the book

A slow start, but a book that captures you

It was the link to the battle of the Somme that brought me in. However, this is a small part of a moving and powerful story, of love, family loyalty and greed ranging across the First World War, into World War 2, 1971 and then to the present day.

I must admit I struggled with this book early on. I’m not sure if it’s the translation or the actual prose, but it did take some getting used to.

I stuck with it and was rewarded by an intense and cinematic story that does work well.

This novel is translated from Norwegian by an extremely talented translator called Paul Russell Garrett, and he deserves serious credit for the beautiful language this novel contains. The writing is descriptive and powerful and emotive, and in terms of the beauty and skill of writing this novel is stunning.
The setting of this novel moves from a farm in Norway to an island off Shetland in Scotland, and a forest in France near the Somme. The author manages to make these three different places feel unique and feel so real and so full of history and depth. This novel is a wonderful example of the craft of writing.
The story itself is a fascinating one, Sverre (the main character) tries to find out about his family history, and what really caused his parents' deaths when he was 4. The two strands are interwoven very well, and we slowly get to see the full story of Sverre as he discovers it.
The historical aspects are also excellent, it actually feels like I have learnt a lot from this novel, both about the Somme in World War I, and other elements too.
The author of this novel, Mytting, also wrote the bestselling book Norwegian Wood, which is a non-fiction book about wood basically. This love and interest of wood is inherently obvious in this novel too. You can't help but get swept up in his love of trees and wood itself, and the beautiful images his words create. It was also fascinating to read about the symbolism of the particular trees in the title.
Overall this was a beautiful novel, with wonderfully poetic prose, and a fascinating premise. I would highly recommend this novel to all!!

Just not for me, I'm afraid. I wanted to enjoy it but it's not a style of writing I enjoy.

The Sixteen Trees of the Somme has a compelling, enthralling story line with wonderfully atmospheric settings and well-developed characters. I was completely immersed in Edvard’s search for the truth about his parents’ death; like him, all the time fearing the dark secrets he might uncover but compelled to find out nonetheless. A fantastic book, highly recommended.

There's a good - if rather familiar - story here but my, Mytting takes his time telling it! It seems to be a Scandinavian thing to write in a loose, circulatory, baggy kind of way with lots of musings and maneuverings around the main thrust of the story. Add in some risible similes ('he sat there like a wax figure in a German fighter jet'; 'she was quiet and guarded like an old floor clock') and lots of inset stories prefaced by a 'she told me that...' and I was a bit hard pressed to stick with this.

At heart this ties together a story of something that happens at the Somme with French and Norwegian families caught up in WW2, and a man in the present tracing both the stories and his family connections. The WW2 story is packed with well-worn tropes (betrayal in the Résistance, Nazi atrocities, Ravensbruck) and isn't particularly emotive in the telling. What Mytting does so well, though, is weave in stories to do with wood, both the eponymous trees and wooden objects.

If you like leisurely-paced stories based on C20th family histories this may well be a good choice - a more compressed and sharper execution would have improved the book for me.

This is a stunning novel by Lars Mytting translated from the Norwegian. Edvard has grown up with his grandfather, Sverre, on a remote farm in the mountains. He has learned the family trade of potato farming and keeping sheep successfully. It is a lonely life, living in a small community where everyone is curious, know everyone's business and are unforgiving at times. Sverre's death hits Edvard hard as he ponders over his future and the mystery of the beautiful art deco coffin, handmade many years ago for Sverre, by his supposedly dead brother, Einar, a master cabinetmaker. Conflict kept Einar away from the farm and it seems it is connected with the mystery of the death of Edvard's parents from an unexploded gas shell at Authuille, in France. The young Edvard disappeared for 4 days from the scene, assumed to have been abducted. He has no memory of this time, but he yearns to know more about Einar and his parents. This is a quest for his personal identity, ghosts, love, a tragic family history, trees, loss, grief, and an unusual inheritance.

Despite the appearance of his ex-girlfriend, Hanne, who intimates that she is ready to be his wife, Edvard gives in to his deepest urges and goes to the Shetland Islands to find out more about Einar. Apparently Einar became both a boatbuilder and coffin maker, living life as a recluse and bequeathing a contested legacy to Edvard. He becomes aware of the inheritance and its intertwined conflicting history between Einar and the Winterfinch family. He encounters Gwen, who is given to deception and armed with ulterior motives, but he is inexorably drawn to her as a woman as he shrugs off his relationship with Hanne and his responsiblities for his farm. Their relationship is coloured by and echoes the tensions and conflicts of the past beween Einar and her grandfather, Duncan Winterfinch and the fate of 16 Walnut Trees belonging to the family of Isabelle Daveaux, who suffered terribly under the Gestapo. Edvard is compelled to visit the Somme, Authuille, where his parents died, as he learns of the horrors and anguish that have visited his family. His memories of his disappearance for 4 days slowly filter back to him, although they bring him little comfort but he now knows the truth. His relationship with Gwen is fraught and threatens to splinter under the weight of their families shared past and the inheritance.

This is epic storytelling from the author, he weaves a compelling history of a family and twentieth century history encompassing both the First and Second World Wars. Reading about the fate of Black Watch Soldiers and the Battle of the Somme, which resulted in the loss of well over a million lives over a small piece of wood, speaks of the monumental horrors and pain of war with its consequent lingering effects on the area in the years to come. The knowledge and expertise of trees, and wood, is inherently fascinating as is their symbolism when Edvard plants 16 walnut trees on his farm in honour of the dead trees and soldiers at the Somme, his family ghosts and to memorialise family history. This is a story of remarkable depth with characters rendered authentic as they live through the grim realities of European history and the personal toll it exacts from them. Einar carving coffins, and the use of coffins, is highly symbolic in the novel as it highlights the death and suffering of so many. A brilliant read that I cannot recommend highly enough. Thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

A powerfully moving family saga, tackling themes of love, loss, war, and grief in the majestic settings of Norway and the Shetlands. Superb.