First published in Norway in 1992, two years after the death of Per Petterson's (Out Stealing Horses) parents, brother and nephew in a fire, It's Fine by Me mines both the adolescent struggle to form an identity and the emotional defense mechanisms built by the grieving to protect them from the pain of loss.
On 13-year-old Audun Sletten's first day at Veitvet School, the headmaster asks him to remove his sunglasses. Audun simply and firmly demurs: "I have scars." Though he is lying and has no physical scars, he has also told a deeper truth. Audun carries his scars inside, and he has no intention of revealing the stories behind them. Even his best friend Arvid Jansen--the main character of Petterson's previous novels In the Wake and I Curse the River of Time--finds Audun an enigma, a boy who uses the refrain "It's fine by me" to disguise his perturbation at the misfortunes of his life and the unfeeling actions of others, even from himself.
Readers who love deep examinations of character will find themselves caught in Audun's voice like a ray of light in a prism, their emotions filtering through in a spectrum of compassion, commiseration and admiration. Petterson's prose is brisk and unornamented, perfect for evoking the austere beauty of the Norwegian landscape and yet packed with emotions both powerful and subtle. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger, Infinite Reads