“Adult, returning home, seeing things with new eyes and returning a few months later. That’s what I’m good at. And that’s what I’m going to live on,” the young Tarjei tells himself shortly before announcing to his parents and his older sister that he and his three best friends will be leaving for Afghanistan. First novel by children’s author Helga Flatland, Stay if you can, leave if you have to recounts in four voices the peaceful life of a small Norwegian town and the repercussions on its inhabitants of the departure of young men for a war which does not concern it or very little. Alternately narrated from the point of view of a neuroatypical boy, a powerless father in the face of his son’s suffering, a bereaved mother and a young homosexual soldier, this moving introspective novel testifies with sensitivity to the strength of family, romantic and friendly ties, the resilience of those who remain, as well as the too heavy weight of secrets that we should not be ashamed of.
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