The Boat in the Evening
1968 novel by Tarjei Vesaas
The Boat in the Evening (Nynorsk: Båten om kvelden) is a 1968 novel by the Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas. It has a fragmentary and meditative narrative which centres on a child who observes a crane colony perform its breeding ritual. It was the author's final book. It was published in English in 1971, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews critic wrote: "From the work of the late Norwegian writer (this is his last book), there always seems to emanate that curious fiery chill of snow defining the edge of dark fjords, and this 'novel,' really a series of overlapping sketches and meditations, again is concerned with essential paradoxes. ... Vesaas' prose has a dynamic variety of rhythms and visual progressions so that even when the atmosphere is pure philosophic ozone, the reader can still keep his footing.
“The Boat in the Evening” enters the record as 1968 novel by Tarjei Vesaas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Boat, Evening and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Boat in the Evening” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Boat, Evening and novel provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19892169. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968 and 1971.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “The Boat in the Evening” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.