Synopses & Reviews
A master of Norwegian literature critiques contemporary society with wry wit in an existential murder storyIt is Christmas Eve, and 55-year-old Professor Andersen is alone, drinking coffee and cognac in his living room. Lost in thought, he looks out of the window and sees a man strangle a woman in the apartment across the street. Professor Andersen fails to report the crime. The days pass, and he becomes paralyzed by indecision. Desperate for respite, the professor sets off to a local sushi bar, only to find himself face to face with the murderer. This is an unsettling yet highly entertaining novel of apathy, rebellion, and morality. In flinty prose, Solstad presents an uncomfortable question—would we, like his cerebral protagonist, do nothing?
Review
"Norway's most distinguished living writer. . . . Wryly humorous and needle-sharp in skewering pretension, Solstad is unlike anyone currently writing in English. . . . A deeply rewarding novel." —Sunday Times
Review
"Remarkably nuanced. . . . With sublime restraint and subtle modulation, Solstad conveys an entire age of sorrow and loss." —Publishers Weekly on Shyness and Dignity
Synopsis
GB
About the Author
DAG SOLSTAD is one of Norway's leading contemporary authors. His work has consistently won critical acclaim and he is the only author to have received the Norwegian Literary Critics' Award three times. All three of his novels available in English have been listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize: Shyness and Dignity was shortlisted in 2007 and Novel 11, Book 18 and Professor Andersen's Night were longlisted for the 2009 and 2012 prizes respectively.