Norwegian author Halfdan W. Freihow's first novel “Dear Gabriel” will be available to US readers in August 2007. The book is in the form of a personal letter from a father to his autistic son, and describes both frustration and misunderstanding as well as parental pride and unconditional love.
“Dear Gabriel” is a long letter to my son, Halfdan W. Freihow says about his book. “When Gabriel was three years old, he was diagnosed with autism, and his “otherness” created both the need to understand him better and the need to understand more of myself in relation to him. I felt I owed it to Gabriel, who appreciates and is so dependent on language, to come up with some good sentences – to do my best to give the text a strong literary quality. The letter form therefore came naturally.”
Halfdan W. Freihow lives with his family on an island off the west coast of Norway, and “Dear Gabriel” is set against the haunting yet beautiful coastal landscape in which the family lives. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet wrote “This book is among the most beautiful things written in Norwegian” when it was published in Norway. The book was nominated for the Brage Prize, - Norway' s most prestigious literary award.
Halfdan W. Freihow is a former newspaper, radio and television journalist and has long experience from the publishing industry. “Dear Gabriel” is his first novel. The book is published in the US by MacAdam/Cage. It is translated into English by Robert Ferguson, a renowned translator of Scandinavian literature, who has also written several biographies.