The Weight of Snow Crystals

The Weight of Snow Crystals is a strong and moving novel about a precocious boy who hides a terrible secret. It is also a painful portrayal of a father and son relationship, and how the ones who are closest to us can fail in offering love and support when we need it the most.

The protagonist is a fourteen year old boy living in Oslo in the sixties. Ski jumping is his great passion, and he has a genuine talent for it. His father, a soft-spoken optometrist, is ambitious on his son’s behalf, while his beautiful, but slightly absent-minded mother wishes that he would give up what she considers a dangerous sport. They are a loving and close family.

But something is very wrong with the boy, and he is alone with his doctor when he receives news of his test results; he has a rare muscular disease that will ultimately render him a paralytic. The deterioration can happen quite fast or over time – it is impossible to predict.

The Weight of Snow Crystals tells the story of a boy facing the gravest and most difficult challenge of his life, and having to go the whole distance on his own.