Moment of Freedom, by Jens Bjorneboe

Moment of Freedom is the first book in the Bjorneboe trilogy known as History of Bestiality. The two other books are Powderhouse and The Silence.
This is a grand work. The anarchic Bjorneboe despised repression and repressive institutions, as well as authority. This trilogy is a broadly founded literary attack on the multiple foundations of repressive [...]

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

“We are at rest five miles behind the front”. This is how one of the world’s great literary treasures, All Quiet on the Western Front, begins. It is a story about a common soldier’s experience in WWI, written in a quiet style, yet conveying the horrific experiences of war in such a way that it has been [...]

South of the Border, West of the Sun, by Haruki Murakami

“A person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair,” says Hajime, the main character in this book. And he sees this damage as two-sided, where the person causing the damage is wounded as well: “Maybe I’ve lost the chance to ever be a decent human being,” he goes on to think.
Haruki Murakami [...]

What I Loved, by Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved is a wonderful novel, beautifully written, but also a very demanding book to read, intellectually as well as emotionally.
Siri Hustvedt is an American, but with Norwegian parents. She lives in New York, and is married to, and have a daughter with, the author Paul Auster. She has a Ph.D. in [...]

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto is a wonderful book on the forming of bonds between people and the transformation of character with circumstance, by a great American writer, Ann Patchett.
Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and raised in Nashville. In 1990, she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It was named a New [...]

Black Seconds, by Karin Fossum

(Norwegian title: Svarte sekunder.)
In 2002 Karin Fossum published her sixth Sejer novel in Norwegian. This book, Black Seconds, is now released in English. So far Karin Fossum’s books have been extremely well received. And with Black Seconds, which is among her best books - well written, highly exciting, and with all the depth one expects from [...]

Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson

Cowboys in the Wild West stole horses. In Norway nobody steals horses, not today, not ever. I think. And I am Norwegian and definitely not a cowboy from the Wild West. Therefore, I never really liked the title of Per Petterson’s book. So I did the right thing. The only option open to me, really. [...]