AshehougAgency

White Dwarves. Black Holes

The protagonist in this novel is Gestas Hutting, a young stockbroker and swindler from London. He flees to India, where he goes through a mental cleansing process, making his way northwards from Madras to Calcutta on the east coast, and finally up to the Ganges, to the place people come to die. On his journey he encounters people in vastly different circumstances, circumstances that highlight the gulf between our over-developed western culture and the civilization of the East. We learn how difficult it is to approach those areas in life that have real meaning. We are also afforded an insight into Gestas's unhappy marriage, and through bits and pieces of his talks with a priest and a doctor when he suffers a nervous breakdown, the reader is slowly getting a fuller picture of this complex character.

Praise for White Dwarves. Black Holes:

"Norwegian literature has found its own Peter Høeg. White Dwarves, Black Holes is an exuberant novel written by a greatly talented author. It is also a novel that has something important to say. Sigmuns Jensen’s first novel is just as promising as Peter Høeg’s decisive breakthrough, Miss Smilla"
(Weekendavisen)

"... murderously entertaining, colourful and captivating.... a critical portrait of the modern civilisation’s crisis"
(Information)

"It has been a long time since I read a Norwegian novel with such a high level of ambition ... and such literary power and resilience"
(Dag og Tid)

"Linguistically speaking, Jensen's elegant style has no match. It is truly delightful to read sentences that flow across the page and to eavesdrop on conversations among the characters that afford an insight into approaches to philosophical questions and bring to life a civilization's eternal problems by grasping the fragmented reality in which we live. ... The text reflects the project in a way that adds an extra dimension to this story of the convulsions of western civilization"
(Fædrelandsvennen)

"This is a book that takes the reader on a journey into a world of its own making, a book that grips, entertains, enthrals and horrifies. It is a book into which to escape, and to return to"
(Dagsavisen)

"Originally composed, sparklingly well-written ... a new first-class novelist"
(Aftenposten)

"An inventive and imaginative novel ... with fierce attacks against neo-liberalism"
(Dagbladet)

First published: 2002, Aschehoug Fiction

Sigmund Jensen: Biography and bibliography

Languages: Danish (Batzer & Co)

Rights sold to