Kjell Askildsen. A Great Deserted Landscape Et stort øde landskap

Transcription

1 Kjell Askildsen A Great Deserted Landscape Et stort øde landskap FICTION SHORT STORIES Oktober Pages A recurring theme in Kjell Askildsen's short stories is the loneliness and vulnerability of man. In a few pages Askildsen portrays the situation of a person, and with that a whole destiny. In A Great Deserted Landscape Askildsen truly shows his insight into the human mind and his lingustic sensitivity. "In a masterly manner, Askildsen uses an ancient literary device: the aggressive vulnerability. In doing so, he gives the reader no choice but to come along with him until the very last sentence, grateful for an authorship which, despite evident ideals and references, has become such an independent artistry expression... In Askildsen s work, the humans are thank God still secretive and incomprehensive beings, in spite of their exposed exhaustedness" Aftenposten FINN STåLE FELBERG Kjell Askildsen (b. 1929) is regarded a master of short stories. He entered the literary scene in 1953 with the collection of short stories From Now on I'll Take You All the Way Home. Askildsen s hallmark is his seemingly plain voice that quivers with a latent desire to communicate, and is frequently couched in a very black and cynical humour which, but for a deep well of irony, might seem dispiriting, even depressive. His human insight and masterly penmanship enable the few words he uses to convey an instantaneous perception of life as it really is, and then to turn that perception into a literary feast. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. So far sold to: Albanian, Armenian, British English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish AWARDS Winner of the Brage Honorary Prize 1996 Winner of the Critics Prize 1983 & 1991 Winner of the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize 2009 Winner of the Sørlandet Honorary Award 2010 Winner of the Aschehoug Prize 1991 Winner of the Critics' Prize 1991 Winner of the Dobloug Prize 1996 Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 1991 "a fascinating and distinguished work of art ( ) It is hardly possible to meet his standards on this, both for Norwegian and foreign writers. VG PREVIOUS TITLES Selected previous titles En plutselig frigjørende tanke noveller (Noveller, Oktober, 2009) Hundene i Tessaloniki. (Noveller, Oktober, 1996) En plutselig frigjørende tanke. (Noveller, Oktober, 1987) Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til allmenheten. (Noveller, Oktober, 1983) Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem. (Noveller, 1953) Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no

2 Brit Bildøen Seven Days in August Sju dagar i august FICTION NOVEL Samlaget Pages In the course of seven days in August, Sofie and Otto Krohg-Iversen, a married couple, experience a series of trivial mishaps. Each of these incidents in itself is not so serious, but they reveal large and small cracks both in their marriage and the community around them. Is everything falling apart? Or are these mishaps reminders of a greater catastrophe in life? The novel is set several years into the future. Eight years have passed since the terrorist attack in Oslo and Utøya, a cataclysm that had hit Sofie and Otto badly. At that time they had devised a plan for survival, strategies that have kept them and their relationship going until this week in August. But for how long can the grief process be a joint effort? Is sorrow something that can be shared for only a short period, and thereafter something you have to live alone with? While rainstorms ravage Oslo and conflicts at work accumulate, it becomes clear to Sofie and Otto that their life strategies will have to be re-evaluated and the important questions can no longer be avoided. So far sold to: English (Seagull Books) PHOTO: LINDA CARTRIDGE Brit Bildøen is one of Norway s most beloved and well acclaimed authors. Bildøen made her literary debut in 1991 with a collection of poetry Bilde av menn (Pictures of Men). In 1998 she had her literary breakthrough with the novel Tvillingfeber (Twin Fever). For this novel she was nominated to the Brage prize for best novel and awarded the Oslo prize and Nynorsk literary prize. For her third novel, Landfastlykke (Landlocked), 2001, she was awarded the Melsom Prize and Sigmund Skard-scholarship. Her novels Alt som er (All There Is), 2004, and Mitt milde vesen (My Gentle Self), 2006, have been praised by the critics. In 2011 her novel Adam Hjorts veg (Adam Hiort s Journey) was published, described by Norwegian author Linn Ullmann as "Playful, beautiful, hilarious and utterly compelling - a novel bursting with literary energy." Bildøen has translated several novels and children s books, and is also a children s books author herself. In 2009 she published a collection of essays called Litterær Salong with readings of Gertrude Stein, Doris Lessing, Elfriede Jelinek and other female writers. «Bildøen writes movingly about grief when life is on hold.» Bergens Tidende «Bildøen strives to describe the inner mechanisms of the human mind -- and succeeds.» Dag og Tid Brit Bildøen was born in Ålesund and grew up on the island Aukra in Møre og Romsdal. She now lives in Oslo. Stilton Literary Agency Hans Petter Bakketeig Fougners vei 14 b NO-0571 Oslo Norway Tel: hanspetter@stilton.no

3 Tomas Espedal Tramp. (or the Art of Living a Wild and Poetic Life) Gå. (eller kunsten å leve et vilt og poetisk liv) FICTION SHORT PROSE Gyldendal Pages Walking. Setting out on foot, out onto the open road; a romantic venture, yet filled with tough experiences: sleeping outdoors, losing one s way, confronting one s limitations, meeting people, passing through wilderness and town, drifting through the streets of Paris and Istanbul, crossing bridges and borders, walking in foreign lands and unknown regions. The walker has neither protection nor home, he travels without haste or fixed destination, he walks to be closer to the things he comes across on his travels. He aims to live the wild and poetic life. He follows his own routes, but also takes detours in the footsteps of the famous literary wanderers; Rousseau, Wordsworth, Hölderlin and Rimbaud; he reads the poets and the philosophers in a quest to teach himself the art of walking. Tomas Espedal made his debut in He has published short prose and novels alike, and was a prize-winner in 1991 of the joint Radio P2/Book Club Novelists competition. PREVIOUS TITLES En vill flukt av parfymer, novel Jeg vil bo i mitt navn, novel Hun og jeg, novel Hotell Norge, novel Blond (erindring), novel Biografi (glemsel), novel Dagbok (epitafer), novel Brev (et forsøk), novel FOREIGN So far sold to: Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK/US/India AWARDS Shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize and winner of the Bergen Prize. a featherlight and elegant invitation into the simple, but challenging joys of life and literature. Dagsavisen Gyldendal Agency P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass NO-0130 Oslo Tel: Fax: anne.cathrine.eng@gyldendal.no

4 Eline Lund Fjæren FICTION NOVEL The Clock and the Bed Klokken og sengen Oktober Pages LINN HEIDI STOKKEDAL She is nineteen years old and has just moved to Bergen, where she lives in a studio flat. She has applied for several jobs she hopes she won t get and doesn t attend any of her lectures at university. She has one friend in this new city: Julie. It is always Julie who calls, not the other way round. And the man she used to see wants to visit. Eline Lund Fjæren (born 1994) comes from Aurskog-Høland. Her first novel, Young Girl, Adult Male, won her the Norli First Book Prize But the place she came from is still so clear to her: the dead snake she cycled past every day for an entire summer, the glistening elk carcass hanging from the ceiling after the hunt, and her mother mourning her lost child. But now she has chosen an adult life in the city on the other side of the mountain. Most of all she just wants to be alone, even if it means being broke, lonely and listless. The Clock and the Bed is a finely tuned portrait of a young woman who is prepared to lay herself bare and transform. "superb unveiling of the human mind [ ] her ability to grasp the human mind awakes both joy and excitement [ ] She writes overwhelmingly well, without restriction yet very credibly." 6/6 stars Bergens Tidende

5 Gjermund Gisvold A Cuckoo in the Nest Gjøkungen FICTION NOVEL Tiden Pages English, German and French sample translations available PHOTO: GEIR MOGEN Anton Dalgård is a simple soul with a dark past. He lives alone in an apartment, his neighbours are a failed author, some African immigrants, a sorrowful janitor, quite a few pensioners and a couple of shady characters. Anton has little contact with the few family members he has, he's got no job, no lovelife and no future prospects to speak of. In fact, he would really rather be left alone, but he keeps ending up in situations involving the other residents of the building. With Anton's help, they are pushed closer and closer to the edge, until someone falls off. In a naïvist and withdrawn style, rich in humour and sharp observations, Gisvold paints an entertaining and eerie portrait of a micro community falling apart. Gjermund Gisvold grew up in the suburbs of Trondheim, in the middle of Norway. He has had a number of different jobs; as a teacher, in a warehouse and as a construction worker. The last few years he has been studying creative writing at the Writer's Academy in Tromsø, while working on several movierelated writing projects. A Cockoo in the Nest is his first novel. Tiden Norsk Forlag P.O. Box 6704 St. Olavs plass NO-0130 Oslo Tel: Fax: richard.aaro@tiden.no

6 Edvard Hoem Haymaker in Heaven Slåttekar i himmelen FICTION NOVEL Oktober Pages Edvard Hoem s great-grandfather was called Knut Hansen Nesje, but everyone just called him Nesje. This novel begins outside Molde in 1874 where Nesje, a widower of two years with a son to take care of, is working as a haymaker. Then Serianna comes along. She smokes a pipe and takes him fishing for pollock, and they fall in love. Soon they get married and have children. Just like Nesje and Serianna, most people live a life of hard work connected to the earth and fjord. But a new option is opening up more and more people are selling the few things they own and making the dangerous and exciting trip to America. Serianna s sister, Gjertine, dreams of going, even though she is still young. News comes from the three Stavig brothers who are now living "over there" of an indescribably beautiful landscape with strange animals, and the hard work involved in setting up your own farm. Nesje is all grown up with five children and thinks he should stay where he is. Nesje still doesn t have his own farm, and when a childless couple from Bortegården farm shows an interest in his son, Anton Edvard, Nesje doesn t see any other option than ensuring his son s future by letting them have him. The loss of his son has a profound effect on him. Haymaker in Heaven is an inspired and moving novel about new and old landscapes, work, pride and love, being willing to take risks and making big sacrifices. PHOTO: FINN STåLE FELBERG Edvard Hoem made his debut in Since then he has published a number of novels, and has been nominated for the Nordic Critics' Literary Prize four times, for the novels The Ferry Crossing, Probation, Ave Eva and Mother's and Father's Story. In addition to this, Edvard Hoem has written plays, essays and he has translated seven of William Shakespeare's plays into Norwegian, among them Othello and King Lear. PREVIOUS TITLES The Wild Years. The Life of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (2009) The Father. Peder Bjørnson Defends Himself (2007) Mother's and Father's Story (2005) Come Forward, Prince! (2004) Miss Dreyer's School of Music (2000) A Time for Wailing, A Time for Dancing (1996) In the Days of Tom Bergmann (1991) Ave Eva (1987) The Homeland. Childhood (1985) Probation (1984) The Ferry Crossing (1974) Like Green Musicians (1969) Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no

7 Cathrine Knudsen Manual Manuell FICTION NOVEL Pelikan Pages The only times Cara Alona met her grandfather as a little girl, was when her family drove through the local toll road on their way to town. There he sat in the small box operating the manual payment in the end of the cash lane, silently reaching out for the money his son handed over, without a word, without any sign of recognition. Now Cara is herself an adult, with kids of her own, and with the relationship, or lack there of, to her grandfather and the rest of the family as starting point, she writes her own life, not as it unfolds in time, as a straight narrative, but seen through her often strained relationship with others. In prose extremely sensitive of the human condition and relational interaction, Cathrine Knudsen in this novel touches upon central existential questions. What is belonging? What is identity? What is care? Manual is a kind of archaeology of the emotions, consistently seeking the limits of what is human, between man and woman, the sick and the healthy, the child and the adult, dependency and freedom. ANNA JULIA GRANBERG Cathrine Knudsen lives at a farm in the rural Modum, with her author husband Thure Erik Lund. She has previously published three novels, all of them to great critical acclaim. Manual is her first novel at Pelikanen Publishing house, where she has worked closely with her editor, and Pelikanens founder, Karl Ove Knausgård. Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency A/S Studiestræde 35 DK-1455 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel: Fax: anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk Manual was hailed by critics as one of the best literary publications in Norway in 2014, predicting Knudsen ultimate breakthrough as a novelist.

8 Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg In the Best Sense I beste mening FICTION NOVEL Cappelen Damm Pages Helene grew up with foster parents Anna and Helge. She has now started her own family and moved back to her home town in the hope of saving her marriage with Karl. It is winter, they are living in a huge old house, and Karl is working out of town. He says that he cannot come home because of the weather. PHOTO: FREDRIK ARFF Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg was born in Oslo, but now lives on the outskirts of Arendal. She graduated from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with a degree in Nordic literature, and works as a lower secondary teacher. This novel tells the story of Helene's search for companionship: about feeling like a guest in her foster parents' house, about young love, longing and loneliness. Helene and her growing sense of unease are headed for a storm: will Karl come home? In the Best Sense is an insightful novel about belonging. Benedicte Meyer Kroneberg explores communication problems in close relationships and how people can become lonely even in the most seemingly ideal situations. It is also a novel about those that fall between the cracks, about those who are too unforgiving for most, but not confident enough when it comes to those closest to them, and about how the incorrect assumptions we make about the motive of others can have serious consequences. Previous titles: Ingen skal høre hvor stille det er En rettferdig krig Hvis noen ser meg nå Cappelen Damm Agency NO-0055 Oslo Tel: rights@cappelen.no

9 Trude Marstein Doing Good Gjøre godt FICTION NOVEL Gyldendal Pages Saturday night has just turned into Sunday as Peter approaches the town where he is about to start a new job. In a train travelling in the opposite direction Peter catches sight of his ex-lover Karoline leaving the town. Peter and Karoline are just two of the hundred and eighteen characters that inhabit Trude Marstein s daringly constructed novel, Doing good. This is a novel which framework is defined precisely by time and place, but which composition is driven forward by strong sensory and emotional impressions. Shifting elegantly from narrator to narrator, it captures the most diverse characters and environments, all within a small Norwegian town and in the space of one July weekend. A book about passion and death, work and escape, drunkenness and reconciliation, bewilderment and reflection. And ultimately about how, as human beings, in the midst of everything life throws at us, we struggle to do good. Trude Marstein has confirmed her prominent position among younger Norwegian authors. She received the Debutant Prize in 1998, and later won the Sult Prize and the Dobloug Prize. She has written several novels, a children s book and essays. She is listed on the Norwegian equivalent of the Granta list. PREVIOUS TITLES Sterk sult, plutselig kvalme, novel Plutselig høre noen åpne en dør, novel Happy Birthday, children s book Elin og Hans, novel Konstruksjon og inderlighet, essays Byens ansikt, play AWARDS Norwegian Literary Critics Prize, 2006, and the P.O. Enquist Prize, Doing Good is a novel which first and foremost impresses with its display of brillilant technical control from the author s hand. Aftenposten Gyldendal Agency P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass NO-0130 Oslo Tel: Fax: foreignrights@gyldendal.no A convincing piece of handicraft that contains an implicit diagnosis of contemporary life. Dagens Næringsliv

10 Maria Navarro Skaranger FICTION NOVEL All the Foreigners Have Their Curtains Closed Alle utlendinger har lukka gardiner Oktober Pages PHOTO: PERNILLE MARIE WALVIK "The walks home from school, they re stuck to my brain like could it have been yesterday. Every day it was the same thing. Mom said he would get me and my other brother protested, always, but still he came to my school, said hello to the grown-ups and took me home. I walked behind him, him in front, and before us Røverkollen lay there like the most peaceful housing co-op, with a blue sky and still with Christmas decorations blinking like a disco globe in the tallest building because the chinks hadn t taken down yet. Once my other brother pointed at the windows on the third floor outside Julia s building and was like: look, all the foreigners have their curtains closed." Everyone who lives in Oslo's suburb Romsås, is really from somewhere else. Mariana attends lower secondary school and is in love with Mu2. Her big brother is in jail, her little brother sits behind the curtains. Their father takes out a green Bible and prays when he thinks nobody can see him. All the Foreigners Have Their Curtains Closed is direct, funny and genuine a powerful literary debut. Maria Navarro Skaranger was born in The foreign rights to her debut book were sold to Denmark before the original book was published in Norway. FOREIGN Denmark Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no So far sold to: Danish A new, important voice. (...) Her debut is fearless, original and a feast to read VG Young people in literature often represent a new era. Sometimes this also happens using a new language. Maria Navarro Skaranger (20) from Romsås may give post-war authors such as Jacobsen, Petterson and Kjærstad a run for their money Dagens Næringsliv

11 Lars Mytting The Flame Birches Svøm med dem som drukner FICTION NOVEL Gyldendal Pages English sample translation available PHOTO: CHRISTIAN ELGVIN In 1971, a French-Norwegian couple dies when they step on an unexploded grenade at the old battlefields of the Somme. Their three-year old son Edvard is found alone four days later in a town many miles away. The tragedy remains unsolved, and the boy grows up with his grandparents at a desolate farm in Norway. At age 23, Edvard discovers that an unknown person delivered a coffin to the funeral agency many years ago, intended for his grandfather. The coffin is a splendid piece of craftsmanship, made of beautiful flame birch. Edvard believes it to be made by his grand uncle, a master carpenter who bitterly left the family decades ago and worked in France during the 1930s, then disappeared. Strangely, he seems to be connected with the tragic incident in Edvarde sets off to a journey for the truth and to revive his sorrow, and the quest brings him places as diverse as the Shetland Isles, Edinburgh and back to the old battlefields where he once disappeared. He discovers that his mother was searching for a family heirloom in 1971, «something age old, huge, enough to fill a horse wagon» but what it really was, and if it still exists, is yet to be resolved. He finds that someone else is searching for it, a young woman with an inherited obsession, and Edvard is drawn towards her with both desire and despise. The Flame Birches is a poetic mystery, a tale of desperate searches, of loss and love, visiting three generations and European historical events, all seen through the clever eye of a rural boy with an intense emotional register, especially for trees and nature, a register that will grow at a painfully quick pace as he unravels the past. Lars Mytting was born in 1968 in Fåvang, Norway. He worked as a journalist and editor before writing full time. He has published two novels and a non-fiction book, which has been widely translated. His book Hel ved (Solid Wood) has sold over copies in Norway and Sweden alone. FOREIGN So far sold to: Denmark (Rosinante), France (Actes Sud), Germany (Suhrkamp), The Netherlands (Atlas/Contact), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand) PREVIOUS TITLES Hel ved (Solid Wood), non-fiction 2011 Vårofferet (Spring Sacrifice), novel 2010 Hestekrefter (Horse Power), novel 2006 Agentur Literatur. Hebel & Bindermann Mariannenstrasse 9-10 DE Berlin Germany Tel: Fax: gudrun.hebel@agentur-literatur.de

12 Kristine Næss Only Human Bare et menneske FICTION NOVEL Oktober Pages Bea Britt lives alone in her grandmother s house in Vettakollen in Oslo, where her father grew up. Early one morning, there are people out in the garden, looking for a twelveyear- old girl who has disappeared. Bea Britt used to see her going for a walk with her little dog. The police find the girl s rucksack in the garden, and because of this, Bea Britt becomes a suspect. At the same time, her grandmother s story lives on inside her; everything which has been said and done in the house she lives in. Only Human is an urgent and rich novel about enduring oneself and others, about what is needed when life wears thin, and about the illuminating power of love. Nominated for The Nordic Council's Literary Award PHOTO: FINN STåLE FELBERG Kristine Næss published her first collection of poetry, OBLADI in 1996, and has since written two novels and one collection of prose. She also works as an editor in a literary magazine and as a literary critic. FOREIGN So far sold to: Sweden (Lindelöws Bokförlag), UK (Harvill Secker) PREVIOUS TITLES 2010 See what happens 2008 Hannah's Story with Heddy 2004 Headstrong 2002 Rita Becomes a Writer Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no "Few writers other than Kristine Næss succeed in getting language so close to life itself; she is one of the very best of our generation." Karl Ove Knausgård

13 Tore Renberg See You Tomorrow Vi ses i morgen FICTION NOVEL Oktober Pages Pål has a shameful secret that has dragged him into huge debt, much bigger than he can ever hope to pay down on his modest civil servant salary. He desperately doesn t want anybody to find out especially not his teenage daughters or his ex-wife. It is time to get creative. Sixteen-year-old Sandra, too, has a secret. She is in love with the impossibly charming delinquent Daniel William, a love so strong and pure nothing can come in its way. Not her concerned parents, not Jesus, and certainly not some other girl. Cecilie carries the biggest secret of them all, a baby growing inside her. She can only hope that her boyfriend Rudi is the child's father. PHOTO: ASBJøRN JENSEN Tore Renberg made his literary debut in 1995 with the collection of short prose Sleeping Tangle for which he won the prestigious Tarjei Vesaas' Debutant Prize. Since then he has written several novels and children's books, one collection of prose and made one book of collages. In 2004 he was selected one of the ten best writers in Norway under the age of 35, by the Norwegian Festival of Literature and the influential weekly newspaper Morgenbladet. Over three fateful September days, these lives cross in a whirlwind of brutality, laughter, tragedy and love that will change them forever. Tore Renberg has written a fast-paced, moving and darkly funny page-turner about people who are trying to fill the holes in their lives, a messy love story with strong ties to the modern TV drama. Combining Nordic social realism and Western popular culture, horror and hope, metal music and literary marvels, See You Tomorrow is a startlingly original, eerie and hilarious novel about friendship, crime, loneliness and tragic death that will stay with the reader long after the last page is devoured. See You Tomorrow is the first freestanding volume in a planned series of five novels. The second volume, From All Sides, was published in SELECTED PREVIOUS TITLES Pixley Mapogo, 2009 Charlotte Isabel Hansen, 2008 Kompani Orheim (The Orheim Company), 2005 Mannen som elsket Yngve (The Man Who Loved Yngve), 2003 En god tid (Happy Times), 2001 Renselse (Purification), 1998 Matriarkat (Matriarchy), 1996 AWARDS Tarjei Vesaas' Debutant prize 1995 Tiden Prize 1996 Siddis prize 2004 The P2 listeners' best novel prize 2005 Stavanger Cultural prize 2008 The Booksellers' prize 2008 The Department of Culture's Prize for Gi gass, Ine 2010 FOREIGN So far sold to: Denmark, France, Hungary, Sweden, UK/USA Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no froydis.jorve.stromme@aschehougagency.no

14 Lajla Rolstad Wolf Island Ulveøya FICTION NOVEL Gyldendal Pages Do I have to live my life in this way? Lajla Rolstad asks, and books a plane ticket to Canada. During the next few years, she spends long periods here, alone in the wilderness or on the road, among people who live outside society in peripheral areas or whom she comes across on her travels: marihuana growers, trappers, cowboys, hippies, adventurers and medicine men. PHOTO: GYLDENDAL Lajla Rolstad was born in She has written an academic thesis on Bram Stoker s Dracula. She made her debut in 2009 with The Necronaut, a gothic steampunk suspense novel. Wolf Island is her second book. The first winter she is the caretaker at an isolated resort that is closed for the season. Her nearest neighbour lives half an hour walk away, through the forest. Gradually she learns to know her surroundings, the nature and animal life, as well as the other people on the island: a strange community of people who seemed to have washed ashore there, or just escaped from civilization and their old lives. She later lives alone for a whole winter in a log cabin in an Indian reservation, with grizzly bears, wolves and strange men as her neighbours. The doctor once told her to take her medicines and live a predictable life. But this is the opposite: a life without protection. FOREIGN Denmark (Batzer), Germany (Btb/Random House) Gyldendal Agency P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass NO-0130 Oslo Tel: Fax: foreignrights@gyldendal.no "It's such a quiet story, and yet so wild, my heart was beating hard several times while I read, even though what happened was so simple: a meeting with a wolf, a ceremony with a medicine man; so subtly dramatic. The story is so consistent and well-shaped, the themes so simple, and yet so universal; to overcome your fear, to find peace in yourself and trust in your world, the outer journey which mirrors the inner, but it never becomes clichéd or banal. It's a very powerful book, I strongly recommend it." Danish reader's report

15 Carl Frode Tiller The Encirclement Trilogy Innsirkling trilogien FICTION NOVEL - TRILOGY Aschehoug 2007/2011/ /396/350 Pages English sample translation available PHOTO: VEGARD EGGEN Encirclement: David has lost his memory. A newspaper advertisement encourages old and new acquaintances to write him letters, in order to revive his past. The letters create a network of texts where the biography of David, the writers, and other people, are rewritten and put at stake. The letters were written in 2006, but evolve around the past. This way, false views are created adolescent dreams, the ambitions of artists and plans for the future. What is a life, how is a life story created under the influence of other people's story? In Encirclement II three new voices write to David, illuminate another phase of his life and encircling him further while at the same time encircling their own lives. These are intensely glowing and dark stories that ruthlessly display the feebleness of both the close relations and the cultural and social conditions we all are subject to. In Encirclement III we meet Marius, who was accidentally swapped with David at the maternity ward. And with David s story, the last piece falls into place in the picture which Tiller has constructed through three books. The result is naturally the stories about David, but also a series of psychological snapshots of relations between people, portraits of decades and environments, as well as an overarching tale of a modern Norway and the world. Titles in the series so far sold to: Albanian, British English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (...) a talent for storytelling that few of his generation can measure up to. (...) an authorship which promises to be the best thing to happen to Norwegian realism in a very long time. Dagens Næringsliv Doubtlessly one of his generation s most important novelists, Carl Frode Tiller is admired for his instantly recognizable, furious prose and his ability to create vivid, complex characters whose fates often seem sealed by their inability to break out of their own destructive behavioural patterns that mark their relationships with other people. Though they might come across as dark and desperate, Tiller succeeds in portraying these tragic characters in a way that arouses the deepest sympathy in the reader. Few has won as many literary prizes for their first three books as Tiller, starting with the sensational debut The Slope in In 2005 he was named one of the 10 best Norwegian writers under the age of 35. In 2006, The Slope was named among the 25 most important Norwegian novels from the last 25 years in a prestigious contest in the daily Dagbladet. AWARDS European Union Prize for Literature 2009 Gyldendal s Hunger Prize (Sultprisen) 2008 Brage Prize 2007 (for Encirclement) Literary Critics' Prize 2007 (for Encirclement) Tarjei Vesaas Debut Fiction Prize 2001 (for The Slope) P2 Listeners' Best Novel Prize 2001 (for The Slope) PREVIOUS TITLES Bipersonar (Minor Characters), novel 2003 Skråninga (The Slope), novel 2001 Aschehoug Agency P.O. Box 363 Sentrum NO-0102 Oslo Tel: Fax: epost@aschehougagency.no