If the aim of fiction is to so completely engross readers that theyre transported by words and grafted into the lives of fabricated people, then Per Petterson has perfected the art of spellbinding literature. You dont just read his novels of Nordic life, you experience them. His Out Stealing Horses, winner of the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, captivated readers with its story of a Norwegian widower unpeeling the memories of a tragic past. The novel had all the earmarks of great literature: spare, lucid prose; vibrant characters; wrenching emotional depth; a page-turning plot. Though hed been publishing fiction in Norway for a decade, Out Stealing Horses catapulted Petterson onto the American literary scene. He has rightfully drawn comparisons to Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, Willa Cather, and William Faulkner.