Against Nature

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.

Foreign sales:
Bulgaria, Perseus
Croatia, Fidipid
Denmark, Batzer
France, Actes Sud
Germany, Matthes & Seitz
Hungary, Typotex
Israel, Locus Publishing House
Italy, Ponte alle Grazie
Korea, Open Books
the Netherlands, Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek
Serbia, Carobna Knijga
Turkey, Miklagard World
UK/US/India, Seagull

«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

«Tomas Espedal has a personally centred literary project that he pursues and expands with fascinating force and consistency.»
Stavanger Aftenblad

«Espedal's writing sparkles ... »
Aftenposten

«AGAINST NATURE is one of the year's most powerful and original books.»
VG

«AGAINST NATURE is quite simply a love story that draws the reader in with such power, and which speaks directly to everyone who has experienced a reverse in love, or wonders how one feels.»
Aftenposten

«What makes Espedal a writer in the top flight is his ability to invest the seemingly everyday with distinctive linguistic resonance. Espedal makes use of the rich register of connotation in literary language, just like a poet.»
Bergens Tidende

«... I was moved to the core by this revelation of a book. I know of no other Norwegian author who writes so movingly about sorrow.»
Adresseavisen

«In his recent work, Espedal has fused poetry with autobiography in a unique, Norwegian style. AGAINST NATURE is a perspectival and personal treatment of an old theme: unattainable love. He writes it to pieces, then puts it together again, in long, conflicting movements.»
Klassekampen

«No one describes the everyday – the countless small tasks of life – with such sensitivity, no one interpolates existential questions more certainly, even Knausgård must give place.»
Dagsavisen

«This is a short narrative, and yet it encompasses a myriad of important crossroads and minor dramas in the life of the main character. The sequencing of the various timeframes and events into a larger drift is impressively managed. The transitions from event to event – often spanning large tracts of time – are supremely supple.»
Morgenbladet

«Few Norwegian novels are so full of wonderful prose and small passages tempting to quote, as those of Tomas Espedal.»
Dagens Næringsliv

«AGAINST NATURE stands out as one of the star works in Norwegian publishing this autumn.»
Vårt Land