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63 pages 2 hours read

Jo Nesbø

The Snowman

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007

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Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5, Chapter 33 Summary: “Wednesday, November 5, 1980: The Snowman”

Mathias waits for his mother, and he gets out of the car and begins packing snowballs. He is thinking about being teased at school for not having nipples. He begins building a snowman and, when it is finished, he sits on it and looks in the window. He sees his mother having sex with a man inside and notices that the man doesn’t have any nipples. The man sees Mathias looking in the window, and Mathias returns to the car and thinks about what he has seen—he knows that the man is his father. Mathias decides this man must never find out. He wants to die and wants his mother to die as well.

After his mother starts driving, he tells her that they are going to die. He hits her with the tire jack until she drives across the road and into the river. As the car begins to sink, Mathias smashes the window and climbs out. A man pulls him ashore, and Mathias tells him that there is no one else in the car. The police conclude that his mother’s injuries are from the impact.

Six years later, Mathias meets Idar Vetlesen at medical school. At a party one night, students are comparing blood types, and Mathias reveals that he is B negative.

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