Novel 11, Book 18
  • Published: 31 July 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446485897
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

Novel 11, Book 18

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EBook
31 Jul 2011
Paperback
15 Mar 2017
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A highly subversive novel – about gambling with a comfortable existence – from the master of Norwegian literature

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.
  • Published: 31 July 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446485897
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224
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About the author

Dag Solstad

Dag Solstad is one of Norway’s leading and most celebrated contemporary writers. Solstad has won many Norwegian and international awards, most recently the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize in 2017, and is the only author to have won the Norwegian Critics Prize three times. All three of his novels already published in English – Shyness and Dignity, Novel 11, Book 18 and Professor Andersen's Night – have been listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Also by Dag Solstad

T Singer
Armand V
Professor Andersen's Night
Shyness and Dignity
See all

Praise for Novel 11, Book 18

Unexpectedly moving...a wry, fantastic book

Books of The Year, Irish Times

Brilliant and subtle... What matters is Solstad's dedicated application to the mysteries of human conduct and relations that his town treasurer illustrates

Independent

Bleak, funny, brilliantly observed

The Times

He’s a kind of surrealistic writer... I think that’s serious literature

Haruki Murakami

Without question Norway's bravest, most intelligent novelist

Per Petterson

An utterly hypnotic and utterly humane writer

James Wood, New Yorker

The existential novel is alive and well... Solstad has a dry and bleakly comic style

Daily Telegraph

Solstad is a masterful investigator of human thought and behaviour, and, like the inside of anyone’s head, this novel is in turns funny, mournful, quizzical and insightful. And a real pleasure to read.

Jane Graham, Big Issue

In the intriguingly titled Novel 11, Book 18 Norwegian writer Dag Solstad serves up another helping of his wan and wise almost-comedy.

Geoff Dyer, Observer

He doesn’t write to please other people. Do exactly what you want, that’s my idea...the drama exists in his voice, in his comments and views, and that works, it helps connect the reader to the story

Lydia Davis