Post-apocalyptic book about a cloned male who lives in a small village that has banned technology and musical instruments

Question

The story takes place in a small village that has banned technology and musical instruments. We only hear a bit about the outside world when he eavesdrops on his parents.

The protagonist also hears that he's not his parents' son; he's a clone of "dad's" former colleague, an outstanding scientist, but he doesn't understand what that means.

Outside of the village there's wasteland and some form of monsters, possibly mutants. His childhood friend (girl) gets taken to their cave, and has a monster baby after they take her back.

They salvage an organ, and he becomes really good at playing it. But he plays some angry tunes at some point, and he is quarantined in the cottage overlooking the village. Then he sees them burn the organ, and he kills his brother, the real son of his "parents" in his rage. Then he runs away, book ends.

I think the author was Danish. I read a translated version in norwegian, but don't know if it was ever translated to English. It was supposed to be a series AFAIK, but I only read the first one. It was probably published between 2006-2010. Help would be greatly appreciated!

Update: There's about a dozen boxes full of books in my parents' basement, and we've scheduled to go through them within the next week or so, as they need to get rid of some of it. One of the Game of Thrones-books was there, so perhaps I'll find it eventually.

Answer 1

The book you're thinking about is Golak by Josefine Ottensen, and is part of the series "Det døde land" which includes Genfødt/Gjenfødt (2) and Gudløs (3).

Jonah has always been different from everyone else in the small, isolated mountain town. The people around him put obedience, prayer and hard work above all else as they try to recreate a life as it was before the world was laid waste. In the dead land around the city, only the deformed monsters, the golaks, live. Their attack has dire consequences, and Jonah discovers that the golaks are not as distant from humans as the village elders claim. Slowly it dawns on him that this is not the only untruth. Life both in the village and in his own family is built on a web of concealment, secrets and lies.

The answer is derived from my own recollection, and Josefine Ottesen's Bibliografi on Wikipedia (the Danish version as the Norwegian version is incomplete).