My friend, the Pirate
Ole Kristian Løyning
Original title: Min venn, Piraten
Publisher: Vigmostad & Bjørke, 2020
Genre: Novel 9 - 12 years
Pages: 176 pages
André loses his parents in a car accident in which he himself is seriously injured. His only relative is Ben, his father’s uncle, nicknamed the Pirate. André moves in with the slightly drunken sailor and together they manage to make a life together. This is despite the fact that the Pirate is struggling to behave for the education system and the authorities. One day, the Pirate falls ill. He’s told he has only a short time left. André and the Pirate decide to take a boat called Nemo to Trinidad to meet the Pirate’s old friend, Boatman.
With sparkling language, full of playful metaphor and humorous jibes at life, Løyning depicts the relationship between André and the Pirate and their adventure across the seas. Humour and imagination are used as coping mechanisms for adapting to a new existence.
My Friend, The Pirate is about coping with grief while moving forward, in a story that is liberatingly unobtrusive in both form and content, and full of storytelling joy.
Foreign rights
Danish: ABC Forlag
Faroese: Bókadeildin
Film rights: Einar film, Norway
Awards
Winner of the Critic’s Prize for C&YA Literature, 2020
Nominated for the 2021 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize