Against Nature
Imot naturen
In contemporary Norwegian fiction Tomas Espedal’s work stands out as uniquely bound up with the author’s personal experiences. Tramp (2006) introduced us to the wanderer Tomas. Against Art (2009) is a novel that focuses on the author; on how a boy approaches art and eventually becomes a writer. It is about the profession of writing, about routines, responsibility and obstacles.
Against Nature is an examination of factory work, love’s labour, the job of writing. Working in order to live in compliance with society and nature. But what is natural, and why is the narrator drawn towards impossible, impossible love, books, myths, taboos? He reads the story of Abélard and Héloïse, about young Marguerite Duras and her Chinese lover, and realizes that he too is turning into one of those who live against nature.
Longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award
“a love story unlike any other … wins you over with its concentrated calmness, by being so direct, unaffected and irresistible … a masterpiece of literary understatement. Everybody who has recently been thirsting for a new, unexhausted realism, like water in the desert, will love this book.”
Die Zeit, Germany
“Against Nature is one of the year’s most powerful and original books.”
VG
