Biography - Diary - Letter

How do you transform your most basic and important experiences into words? How do you transform your self into words? How can you write about the death of your life partner? How do you fight with yourself and with language itself? And how do you live a calm, quiet life?

This book collects the three novels Biography (oblivion), Diary (epitaphs) and Letter (an attempt) in one volume.

REVIEWS:

«BIOGRAPHY is a biography. DIARY sorts its notes by date. LETTERS are addressed to another, trusted person. The subjects are family, love, death and writing itself. The person writing is Tomas Espedal, one of Norway's most powerful writers. Collected in one volume, the books stand tall and strong. Norwegian class.»
Books of the year 2013, Berlingske, Denmark

«Tomas Espedal's writing makes the blood gash and the angels sing, and the effect is paralyzing, leaving the reader deep in thoughts. In Biography. Diary. Letters. Espedal takes on three of the basic genres of literature - and hits an extremely high stylistic level. Biography is prose of the highest order, but the text is more poetic than what most poets are capable of - and at the same time more incisive and merciless than most banal diaries. This is dazzling.»
Fyens Stiftstidende, Denmark

FOREIGN SALES:

Letters. An attempt. (2005)
Brazil, Ateia
Denmark, Batzer
The Faroe Islands, Sprotin
France, Actes Sud
Germany, Matthes & Seitz
Croatia, FIDIPID

Diary. Epitaphs. (2003)
Denmark, Batzer
The Faroe Islands, Sprotin
Germany, Matthes & Seitz
Croatia, FIDIPID

Biography. Forgetfulness. (1999)
Denmark, Batzer
The Faroe Islands, Sprotin
Germany, Matthes & Seitz
Croatia, FIDIPID

Praise for BIOGRAPHY. DIARY. LETTER:

«BIOGRAPHY is a biography. DIARY sorts its notes by date. LETTER is addressed to a trusted person. The subjects are family, love, death and writing itself. The person writing is Tomas Espedal, one of  Norway's most powerful writers. Collected in one volume, the books stand tall and strong. Norwegian class.»
Books of the year 2013, Berlingske,  Denmark

«Tomas Espedal's writing makes the blood gash and the angels sing, and the effect is paralyzing, leaving the reader deep in thoughts. In BIOGRAPHY. DIARY. LETTER Espedal takes on three of the basic genres of literature - and hits an extremely high stylistic level. Biography is prose of the highest order, but the text is more poetic than what most poets are capable of - and at the same time more incisive and merciless than most banal diaries. This is dazzling.»
Fyens Stiftstidende, Denmark

«It's completely unfathomable that fiction of the quality that Espedal delivers again and again, shouldn't be able to reach a broader audience.»
Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway

«Tomas Espedal's first book in French amazes with its seemingly chaotic construction, its gripping simplicity and its sophisticated style. It starts brutally and elegically: the elegance of desperation - and a great and conspicuous talent.»
Le Monde, France about LETTER (AN ATTEMPT)

«Captivating. Espedal's artful prose unfolds in an eminent way in these texts, which adress life itself, from the banalities of everyday life to the great questions of meaning, death and art. The book is a collection of three separate novels ... which are so intimately interconnected that they almost work as siamese triplets, each magically shedding light on the others in all their honesty and wisdom and Espedal inimitable prose, which pulls the reader into one wonderful story after the other, whether the text deals with everyday matters, journeys, life itself, death, love or art ... A formidable and surprisingly rich book by one of the most importanty writers in the Nordic countries. It is a luxurious feeling to be here, in company with Espedal.»
Litteratursiden.dk, Denmark