The Most Important Day: Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson

What has been the most important day of your life? For Trond Sander, it was "one of the first days of July" in 1948, the last summer he spent with his father, just three years after the end of the Nazi occupation of Trond's home country, Norway. On that day, 15-year-old Trond and his friend stole a ride on their neighbor's horses - a harmless prank that led to a terrible act that would echo through the rest of their lives. Now 67, Trond hopes to find serenity in the snowy wilds of eastern Norway, but the past will not let him escape so easily. In Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses, Trond tells his story.

Upon its first publication in 2003, Out Stealing Horses triggered what has become an ongoing avalanche of critical acclaim. The book won Norway's Bookseller's Prize and the Dublin Impac Award, and it was included in both the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year and Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year. Praise for the book tends to pour itself out in floods of lyricism punctuated by emphatic commands, the best example being this blurb from Newsweek: "Read Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. From the first terse sentences of this mesmerizing Norwegian novel about youth, memory, and, yes, horse stealing; you know you're in the hands of a master storyteller."

Don't get me wrong: it's all true. But it's also more than true. The gift of Out Stealing Horses is not only the story it tells, but what it doesn't say. Petterson's thoughtful yet concise writing leaves a kind of silence in the book, a silence that invites readers to be more present in Trond's life - and their own. As Petterson explores the relationships between fathers and sons, the sacrifices and victories of those who fought the Nazis, and the pull of the past upon the present, that silence - that open, peaceful space - draws readers into a deeper, more intense awareness of each moment, and its immediacy, beauty, and simple truth. Whether you're riding on horseback with Trond through Norway's high-country or pottering about with him and his dog to prepare his remote retreat for winter, Out Stealing Horses provides a surface as smooth and shining as new ice to reflect on the decisions - our own and others' - that make us who we are, and who we may yet be.

What has been the most important day of your life, and how has it shaped you?

**Looking for more horse books for the holidays? Check out the post, Holiday Books for Horse Lovers: Top Ten Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Holiday Themed Horse Books!