Out Stealing Horses

Sixty-seven-year-old Trond is startled by the sudden realization that his neighbor, Lars Haug, is Jon’s brother, Lars, whom he last saw when Lars was 10 years old. He ponders the coincidence of them both ending up in these woods, saying it would annoy him if it happened in a novel. He decides Lars’s presence will not change his plan, which is to continue to work on the cabin and live there until he dies. He begins making plans for the winter. He has to chop enough wood to stay warm and find a way to get his road cleared of snow.

Trond drives to town to order a part for his car, reflecting that the people are starting to get to know a bit about him. His second wife died three years ago in a car accident that almost killed him as well; afterward, he decided he did not want to work anymore and came to the woods for solitude. He has two adult children from his first marriage. At the repair shop, the mechanic gives him the name of a neighbor with a tractor who can clear snow for him, and Trond is relieved. As Trond talks about his efforts to fix up the cabin, he thinks about how any time he has to do something practical, he imagines how his father would have done it and copies his motions until he gets it right; he reveals to the reader that the last time he saw his father he was 15 years old.