Professor Andersen's Night [Paperback]

In this existential murder mystery, it is Christmas Eve, and fifty-five-year-old professor P?l Andersen is alone, drinking coffee and cognac in his living room. Lost in thought, he looks out the window and sees a man strangle a woman in the apartment across the street. Failing to report the crime, he becomes paralyzed by his indecision.A dark and moving examination of one mansderailed life, by the Norwegian master whois without question, Norways bravest, mostintelligent novelist (Per Petterson) With sublime restraint and subtle modulation, Solstad conveys an entire ageof sorrow and loss. Theres an undeniable beauty in the way he raises tedious self-reflexivity to the level of music. I find him an utterly hypnotic and utterly humane writer. His language sparkles with its new old-fashioned elegance and radiates aunique luster, inimitable and full of elan. Solstad, regarded by Norwegians as arguably their finest and surely their most critically praised and influential contemporary novelist, pairs his deep political engagement with an ever-renewed formal invention. With each new novel, he startles us, his readers, yet again with something unexpected.? I find him, with his spirited intelligence, a delight and an inspiration to read, whether (haltingly!) in Norwegian or, over the past few years, happily, gratefully, in English translation.