Sonny Lofthus and His Parents

This flow follows Sonny’s devotion to Ab and Helene, the family’s collapse after Ab’s death, and Sonny’s painful movement from idealization toward a more complicated understanding of his parents.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Hero Father

The Hero Father Admiration and Imitation Sonny grows up idolizing Ab Lofthus, a police officer and accomplished wrestler. He wants to follow his father into the police, and the family’s photographs preserve a picture of closeness: father and son together, proud of one another, and connected through sport. A Child’s Need for Care Ab is an authority in Sonny’s eyes, but Sonny also needs his protection. Later, Sonny recalls disobeying him on a ski jump and worrying less about injury than about disappointing him. His father’s discipline seems severe at the time, but Sonny’s memories suggest that he experiences it as part of being cared for. That idealized bond becomes the standard against which Sonny measures himself. He assumes that becoming like his father would be a natural form of love, never imagining that the image could be shattered by a hidden adult failure.

The Death and the Letter

The Death and the Letter A Discovery in the Study Sonny returns home after a wrestling competition and finds Ab dead at his desk with a gun. He recognizes the weapon from an earlier childhood discovery and reads the suicide note in which Ab claims responsibility for corruption. The boy gives the note to the police rather than hiding it, believing that honesty is his only possible response. A Family Loses Its Shape The revelation destroys Sonny’s image of his father. Helene begins to deteriorate under grief and shame, and Sonny gives up school and activities to care for her. He tries to manage the household and its pain without adult support, until both parents are effectively lost to him in different ways. His loyalty does not end with the note; it changes into shame, anger, and an attempt to survive. Sonny’s later addiction is bound to this collapse, because heroin briefly quiets the grief that he has no way to speak about or repair.

Helene’s Final Absence

Helene’s Final Absence Caregiving Becomes Overwhelming After Ab dies, Helene takes antidepressants, then additional pills, and increasingly relies on alcohol. Sonny attempts to keep her safe and sober, even as he abandons school and wrestling. Their relationship reverses its ordinary direction: a child tries to take care of the parent who had once helped care for him. The First Fix At sixteen, Sonny finds a syringe among Helene’s belongings and injects himself. He discovers a fast way to numb his own distress, then goes to Plata to buy heroin. Addiction becomes a substitute for the emotional shelter that family life no longer provides. Helene later dies after an overdose of sleeping pills. Sonny’s love for her survives, but it is joined to helplessness and guilt. He has been unable to save either parent, and the belief that he failed them becomes part of the punishment he imposes on himself.

The Earrings Returned

The Earrings Returned A Gift from His Mother Sonny gives Martha Agnete Iversen’s earrings, and she initially believes he has stolen them from a murder victim. He explains that they belonged to his mother. The gift is not a calculated gesture of romance so much as a way of placing something Helene wore into the hands of someone still alive. Memory and Present Love Martha recognizes the earrings as a family inheritance, and Sonny’s attachment to them exposes how intensely he still carries his mother’s absence. He has taken them from the house he once shared with his parents, holding onto a small object that can reconnect him to Helene. When Martha rejects the gift after learning that it came from a dead woman, Sonny’s memories of family and his new attachment collide. The gesture shows that he wants to share his history, even though the violence around him makes every offering difficult to accept.

The Diary Changes Everything

The Diary Changes Everything A Father’s Hidden Record Sonny finds Ab’s diary beneath the mattress and reads that his father was one of two police moles. Ab describes financial desperation, his corrupt bargain, and his fear of what he has become. The discovery overturns Sonny’s belief that his father was entirely innocent and that his own mission can be understood as defending an unblemished hero. A More Difficult Inheritance Sonny is devastated by what the diary reveals. Ab did not simply die as a victim of a lie; he had also participated in the corruption that brought danger to his family and helped set the final betrayal in motion. His love for Sonny is still present in the diary, but love did not prevent him from making terrible choices. The truth changes Sonny’s decision to keep killing. He recognizes that repeating his father’s choices would not be a proper tribute to him. At the end, Simon’s appeal to become better than his father gives Sonny a way to honor Ab without inheriting his violence or his corruption.

Sonny’s childhood in Berg, before Ab’s death

When Sonny returns from the wrestling competition at age fifteen

After Ab’s death, before Sonny turns eighteen

During Sonny’s stay at the Lofthus family house after his escape

Near the ending, after Sonny returns to his childhood bedroom