In contemporary Norwegian fiction, Tomas Espedal´s work stands out as uniquely bound up with the author´s personal experiences. His first book, Tramp, introduced us to the wanderer Tomas; Against Art told us how a boy approaches art and eventually becomes a writer; Against Nature examined love´s labor-the job of writing; and in Bergerners, he is torn between his love for his home town and what lies beyond. Now, in The Year, we encounter the author´s struggle to reconcile his inner life with the external world, and the myriad forms of love, hate, loss, and death-both personal and literary-with the immutable pattern of time and the seasons. It is the journal of a year, a diary like no other. And suffusing it all are questions Petrarch asked: How do you live when the one you love is gone? And when your life force shifts from spring to autumn, how do you find the good death? Written as a long poem, The Year is Espedal´s riveting stream of consciousness-profound, edgy, sometimes manic, but always intensely intimate.
