The Rat Chatcher - Manus, Max

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Résumé :
The rain splashes down, and the same strange old feeling explodes in his chest. The memories come and go as he trudges along the streets in the dark autumn night. In a particularly dark place in the street, he stops for a moment, and as he pretends to pull his raincoat tighter around his neck, he takes a good look around. Not spotting any people, he slips his hand under his armpit. He moves the gun from his armpit into his coat pocket. It's nice to feel the wonderful sense of security that the touch of a gun always gave him. His cigarette has gone out a long time ago, he puts the rain soaked stub in his mouth, however reluctantly he wants to, he has to spit out the remains. He dreams more and more back to the time when it was serious. The time when he had a task, and life really seemed to have meaning. How far it was, and yet so damned close. Tonight he feels more intensely than ever how lonely he is, and how foolish his whole life seems to him.his life which for five long years he has fought so hard to preserve. His innate sense of humour is slowly starting to help him get back on track. Although it'a chore, he stops and unbuttons his coat so he can reach into his trouser pocket for his cigarettes and matches. With his cigarette lit again, he felt significantly better and saw the situation a little brighter.

Biographie:
RAT CATCHERS was the term for the Norwegian resistance fighters who performed the dirtiest jobs during the Second World War. They liquidated informers, torturers and other Norwegians who worked for the Germans. THE RAT CATCHER was written by my stephfather, Max Manus (1914-1996), as early as in 1948. At that time, his two classic war books Det vil helst g? godt and Det blir alvor were already successful books. The manuscript of this novel laid for many years in the bottom drawer of a rose-painted cupboard in our living room at home on Land?ya in Asker just outside Oslo, Norway. In the late seventies the script was bound in a hard cover with a leather spine and was given to Max as a birthday present. To this day no one in the family knows what happened to the book. A few years before my mother died she gave me a copy. Max was half Danish, and his language was marked by this. Moreover, he rose supremely above normalised spelling. In this English version I have translated it with great care in order to preserve all the original detail and story. In 2008 the film Max Manus (English: Man of War), was released. It became a smash hit just like his books, and a blockbuster in Norwegian cinemas. The Norwegian version of The Rat Catcher (Rottejegeren), was published in Norway in 2021 by Kagge Forlag AS, and became a best-seller. No one can explain why Max did not publish the novel while he was alive. George Manus