Bergeners

"Bergeners" is a love letter to a writer's hometown. The book opens in New York City at the swanky Standard Hotel and closes in Berlin at Askanischer Hof, a hotel that has seen better days. But between these two global metropolises we find Bergen, Norway – its streets and buildings and the people who walk those streets and live in those buildings. Using James Joyce's "Dubliners" as a discrete guide, celebrated Norwegian writer Tomas Espedal wanders the streets of his hometown. On the journey, he takes notes, reflects, writes a diary, and draws portraits of the city and its inhabitants. Espedal writes tales and short stories, meets fellow writers, and listens to their anecdotes. In a way that anyone from a small town can relate to, he is drawn away from Bergen but at the same time he can't seem to stay away. Espedal's "Bergeners" is a book not just about Bergen, but about life – in a way no one else could have captured.