The Year, Hardcover/Tomas Espedal

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. About author(s): Tomas Espedal is the author of several novels and prose collections, including Bergeners , Against Art , Against Nature , both published by Seagull Books. James Anderson 's literary translations from the Norwegian include Berlin Poplars, by Anne B. Ragde, Nutmeg, by Kristin Valla, and several books by Jostein Gaarder.