The brilliant first novel in the Encircling Trilogy, a searing psychological portrait of a man by his friends David has lost his memory. When a newspaper ad asks his friends and family to share their memories of him, three respond: Jon, his closest friend; Silje, his teenage girlfriend; and Arvid, his estranged stepfatherTheir letters reveal David's early life in the small town of Namsos, full of teenage rebellion, the uncertainties of first love, and intense experiments in art and music. As the narrative circles ever closer to David, the letters interweave with scenes from the present day, and it becomes less and less clear what to believeJon's and Silje's adult lives have run aground on thwarted ambition and failed intimacy, and Arvid has had a lonely struggle with cancer. Each has suspect motives for writing, and soon a contradictory picture of David emerges. Whose remembrance of him is right? Or do they all hold some fragment of the truth? Carl Frode Tiller's masterful opening n