Back in the Day - by Oliver Lovrenski (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Taut, lyrical and utterly gripping - the internationally award-winning and bestselling debut

A fizzing headrush of a novel about four boys coming of age on the deprived outskirts of Oslo

'A gut punch of a debut [in] hurricane prose' Times Literary Supplement

'Raw and unfiltered, I was hooked from the very first page' Service95

Last night i got woke up by marco ringing, and he was crying, he said, he died ivor, he died, and i didnt need to hear who to know, i just hung up.

Ivor and Marco have been getting high since they were thirteen, started dealing at fourteen, by fifteen they were carrying knives. At sixteen years old, they hurtle from one trip to the next, one fight to the next, always watching their backs. Ivor dreams of getting out - finishing school, becoming a lawyer, marrying the girl he loves from the corner shop - but the path he's on only leads one way.

In flashes of firecracker prose, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos, Oliver Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world.

WINNER of the Oslo City Artist Prize and the Norwegian Booksellers Prize

SHORTLISTED for the Brage Award and the Tarjei Vesaas Debut Prize

Review Quotes

Vivid, mordant, fleet-footed . . . A markedly different debut to the millennial ennui that we currently see too often. Oliver Lovrenski is a gifted writer--Sunday Telegraph

The energy and richness of this novel would be impressive even if Oliver Lovrenski hadn't been only 19 years old when he wrote it... Amid the intensity of young male friendship, there's love, family loyalty and vulnerability--Guardian, 'Best Recent Translated Fiction'

A gut punch of a debut [in] hurricane prose . . . At its heart is a tight-knit, multilingual, multicultural crew, their unofficial ringleader the wisecracking Marco, originally from Somalia . . . They are "roadmen" drug-running, Gucci-wearing, Maccie-D-loving, pumped up, shot down, overdosed, full of bravado and frightened. Back in the Day is funny, furious and despondent . . . Vital because of its sheer originality, its splicing of cultures--Times Literary Supplement

Raw and unfiltered, it reads like a journal, capturing the fierce bond between young men struggling to survive, finding both refuge and recklessness in their friendship. But are these friendships their salvation or their downfall? I was hooked from the very first page--Service95

The teenage narrator of this jagged novel is bright, loyal to his friends, self-destructive and, after the death of his beloved grandmother, is sinking rapidly into a drug-addled life of kicks, stabbings and violent crime . . . This is an exercise in literary adrenaline (you can gulp it down in one sitting) . . . Its immersive brio is hard to shake off--Daily Mail

'Norway's Trainspotting... A deep dive into the chaos, terror, and black humour of teenagers locked in a cycle of deprivation... This bleak tale, told with brio, offers a fresh take on what it is to be young in an environment where a positive future is but a dream--Herald

Witty and perceptive, Back in the Day confirms [Oliver Lovrenski] as one of his country's most exciting young writers . . . A story of brotherhood, gang culture and migrant life [and] a streetwise, restless teenager who forays further and further into a subculture of drugs and gang violence... Ivor, Marco, Jonas and Arjan serve as each other's only male role models, but--with tragic irony--their loyalty to each other keeps them trapped in a cycle of threat and retribution--Prospect

What a shot in the arm: the most vivid, vital book I've read in ages. Equally brutal and soulful, and translated with extraordinary energy, Back in the Day is less a breath of fresh air than it is a rogue wave--Lisa McInerney, author of 'The Glorious Heresies'

Blazingly original, both invigorating and heartbreaking, this debut blew my socks off. The language these characters speak crosses all boundaries. Oliver Lovrenski and Nicky Smalley have brought us a marvel -- and left us with hope for the future--Daniel Wiles, author of 'Mercia's Take'

An urgent rush of a novel, rhythmic and raw, [about] four boys becoming men in Oslo amid bad choices and worse circumstances. It reminded me of La Haine... A deeply absorbing picture of friendship & chaos, tenderness & pain--David Hayden, author of 'Darker with the Lights On'

About the Author

Oliver Lovrenski has a Croatian background and he grew up in Norway. His debut novel, Back in the Day, was an instant number-one bestseller when it was published in Norway in 2023. It won the Oslo City Artist Prize, Norwegian Bookseller Prize (making Lovrenski the youngest winner in the prize's seventy-five-year history) and was shortlisted for the Brage Award and the Tarjei Vesaas Debut Prize. The Norwegian edition is now in its eighth print run. The English translation by Nichola Smalley will be published in hardback in 2025.