‘A kind of surrealistic writer… Serious literature’ Haruki Murakami

‘Mad, sad and funny… Thrilling’ Geoff Dyer

Singer, a thirty-four-year-old recently trained librarian, arrives by train in the small town of Notodden to begin a new and anonymous life. He falls in love with Merete, a ceramicist, and moves in with her and her young daughter. After a few years together, the relationship starts to falter, and as the couple is on the verge of separating a car accident prompts a dramatic change in Singer’s life…

‘An utterly hypnotic writer’ James Wood

‘Solstad is expert in delineating the absurdities of existence…’ Sunday Times