Norweigan by Night by Derek B. Miller

This is a very difficult book to review. It is about an old Jewish man, Sheldon, who moves to Norway from America to live with his granddaughter, Rhea, after the death of his wife. Rhea and her husband suspect Sheldon may be suffering from dementia and as the reader it is not immediately apparent whether this is a correct diagnoses. Sheldon is apparently confused about his involvement in the Korean War and is racked with guilt over the death of his son, Saul, in the Vietnam War. The plot flicks between Sheldon's recollections of his time at war, his own delusions and an intriguing police investigation into a murder which Sheldon is inadvertently involved in. These transitions were on occasion a bit difficult to follow, particularly the delusions/flashbacks involving the war(s) which, for me, did not sit well with the remainder of the novel. It was almost as if the writer thought the aspects of the novel involving the analysis of war and conflict were too boring so had to be interspersed with some car chases and guns. Which to be fair is very astute. However, although I found the plot a bit disappointing, the writing is excellent and helps to lift this book. This is a very unusual book which is worth a read but is very hard to categorise and it's even harder for me to determine whether I actually liked it.