Point of View

This novel is told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. Consider the opening sentence of the novel: “‘Oslo,’ the man said, raising the glass of whiskey to his lips” (1). Harry is referred to as “the man” (1) and “his” (1) indicating that the novel is written about Harry from the point of view of another person. While the narrator is omniscient, he does not share everything he knows with the reader. In the “Prelude,” the narrator does not immediately identify the man drinking the whiskey as Harry. In this particular section of the novel, the story is told with a focus on Lucille, who does not yet know Harry or who Harry is. At different points in the novel, the narrator focuses on almost all of the central characters in a similar way.

While Nesbø does scatter clues pointing to the identity of the...