T Singer

T Singer begins with thirty-four-year-old Singer graduating from library school and traveling by train from Oslo to the small town of Notodden, located in the mountainous Telemark region of Norway. There he plans to begin a deliberately anonymous life as a librarian. But Singer unexpectedly falls in love with the ceramicist Merete Saethre, who has a young daughter from a previous relationship. After a few years together, the couple is on the verge of separating, when a car accident prompts a dramatic change in Singer’s life. The narrator of the novel specifically states that this is not a happy story, yet, as in all of Dag Solstad’s works, the prose is marked by an unforgettable combination of humor and darkness. Overall, T Singer marks a departure more explicitly existential than any of Solstad’s previous works. 

Praise for Dag Solstad:

“Dag Solstad serves up another helping of his wan and wise almost-comedy.” - Geoff Dyer

“With sublime restraint and subtle modulation, Solstad conveys an entire age of sorrow and loss.” - Publishers Weekly

“Solstad has a revered role in Norway as the chronicler of his country’s changing times.” - The Independent

“I find him an utterly hypnotic and utterly humane writer.” - James Wood, The New Yorker