Back in the Day - by Oliver Lovrenski (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Last night i got woke up by marco ringing, and he was crying, he said, he died ivor, he died, and i didnt need to hear who to know, i just hung up."

Ivor and Marco have been getting high since they were thirteen, dealing by fourteen, carrying knives by fifteen. Now, at sixteen, they're hurtling from one trip to the next, one fight to another, always watching their backs as the world around them closes in.

Ivor dreams of getting out--finishing school, becoming a lawyer, marrying the girl he loves who works at the corner shop. But the road he's on only leads one way, and escape feels more impossible every day.

Told in flashes of firecracker prose--gritty, tender, and darkly funny--Oliver Lovrenski gives fierce, unforgettable voice to boys growing up inside a brutal, chaotic world. A story of friendship, survival, and the razor's edge between hope and heartbreak.

About the Author

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.