Back in the Day

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 *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 *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’Back in the Day is a powerful portrait of youth and young manhood, told with tenderness and a deep sense of duty towards its characters and the world they occupy. It’s tragic, beautiful and it catches you off-guard in the most unexpected ways – Michael Magee, author of ‘Close to Home’I feel drawn to this book like I feel drawn to commotion. I want to lean towards it. I want to be inside it with them. With translation that reads like a friend bigging up their friend you’ve never met, with a fast jittering style that pushes us forward in the text, Back in the Day feels like you’re actually talking to someone – Tice Cin, author of ‘Keeping the House’Gripping from the very first sentence. This kind of debut only arrives once a decade * Dagsavisen, Norway *

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.