Armand V

New Directions proudly introduces two novels in English by the Norwegian master, who is “without question, Norway’s bravest, most intelligent novelist” (Per Petterson).

Armand is a diplomat rising through the ranks of the Norwegian foreign office, but he’s caught between his public duty to support foreign wars in the Middle East and his private disdain for Western intervention. He hides behind knowing, ironic statements, which no one grasps and which change nothing. Armand’s son joins the Norwegian SAS to fight in the Middle East, despite being specifically warned against such a move by his father, and this leads to catastrophic, heartbreaking consequences.

Told exclusively in footnotes to an unwritten book, this is Solstad’s radically unconventional novel about how we experience the passing of time: how it fragments, drifts, quickens, and how single moments can define a life. 

About the Author: Dag Solstad (b. 1941) has written nearly thirty books, including Professor Andersen's Night and Novel 11, Book 18 (forthcoming from New Directions). Admired worldwide by writers as diverse as Peter Handke and Karl Ove Knausgaard, Solstad has won the 2006 Brage Prize, the 1989 Nordic Council's Prize for Literature, and the Norwegian Critics' Prize in 1969, 1992, and 1999.

Steven T. Murray is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of Fjord Press, which specialized in literary translations from northern Europe. He has translated numerous books from German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, including novels by Nele Neuhaus, Henning Mankell, Karin Alvtegen, and Jørgen Brekke. Murray is best known for his translations of the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.

Praise for Dag Solstad:

“Since he published his first book of stories in 1965, Dag Solstad has been to Scandinavian literature what Philip Roth has been to American letters or Gunter Grass to German writing: an unavoidable voice.” - The Paris Review

“He’s a kind of surrealistic writer—serious literature.” - Haruki Murakami

“His language sparkles with its new old-fashioned elegance, and radiates a unique luster, inimitable and full of elan.” - Karl Ove Knausgaard