Novel 11, Book 18
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY'S NORDIC PRIZE 2017
'He’s a kind of surrealistic writer... I think that’s serious literature' Haruki Murakami
‘An utterly hypnotic and utterly humane writer’ James Wood
'Without question Norway's bravest, most intelligent novelist' Per Petterson
'Dag Solstad serves up another helping of his wan and wise almost-comedy' Geoff Dyer
'He doesn’t write to please other people. Do exactly what you want, that’s my idea...the drama exists in his voice' Lydia Davis
Bjørn Hansen, a respectable town treasurer, has just turned fifty and is horrified by the thought that chance has ruled his life. Eighteen years ago he left his wife and their two-year-old son for his mistress, who persuaded him to start afresh in a small, provincial town and to dabble in amateur dramatics. But as time passes, this relationship begins to wilt and die as well.
After four years of living comfortably alone, Bjørn starts entertaining a dangerous course of action that will change his life beyond recognition. This urge to gamble with his comfortable existence becomes irresistible, taking Bjørn to Vilnius, Lithuania, with Dr Schiøtz his fellow conspirator, where he cannot tell whether he’s tangled up in a game or an absurd new reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A bourgeois man scavenges for meaning in the sly and emotionally rich latest from Solstad (Professor Andersen's Night). Soft-spoken civil servant Bjørn Hansen left his wife and young son, Peter, in Oslo 18 years earlier and moved to a small town. Now, as he approaches his 50th birthday, his quiet life with a new woman, Turid, begins to wear on him. Bjørn leaves Turid to try and start over once again, and with his doctor develops a plan to seize control of his fate ("his great Negation, as he had begun to call it, through an action that would be irrevocable"), the details of which are revealed in the final act. The elaborate scheme, though, is interrupted when Peter, now 20, decides to move in with the father he barely knows. Written with a sharp eye for detail and featuring a winning cast (Turid is particularly vivid, as is the way Bjørn's love for her ebbs as she grows older and becomes less beautiful to him; his contempt for his unpopular son is also sharp), the narrative offers much to admire, even if the second half lacks the keen emotional observation of the first and leaves the repercussions of Bjørn's choices underexplored. Still, Solstad consistently intrigues.
