The Tiberius Cliff

Successful businessman Jan Johansen is searching for a dead man’s signature, the only thing keeping him from closing an important deal on behalf of a client. He is also appointed executor of his uncle’s will, and is hired by the ministry to maintain the Kingdom of Norway’s reputation abroad. His business grows to absurd proportions, turning out to encompass the largest sheep breeding and wool company in the country, which tries to get rid of radioactive animals by offering them to a North African sacrifical ceremony in honour of the patriarch Ibrahim.

Meanwhile Professor Modal is trying to make his students see the connection between the Roman emperor Tiberius and life in the modern world.

The age is characterized by uncertainty, as well as moneylenders, the new Norwegian greed, occult secret governments and a population demoralised by fear of catastrophes and terror. But times are good for the fortune-tellers.

THE TIBERIUS CLIFF is a novel about the hidden meaning and driving forces of history, of the occult conspiracy – and of numbness.

Praise for THE TIBERIUS CLIFF:

“This book is very much a piece of dystopian cultural criticism [… THE TIBERIUS CLIFF] takes the breath away from anybody who appreciates of high-quality literature […] an astonishing epic, that easily equals its international predecessors.”
(Terje Stemland, Aftenposten, Norway)

“Sigmund Jensen has written a novel fuelled by the classic desire to solve the mystery and find the connections. This driving power is pushed to the extreme by letting the connections cause problems for the main character’s life and health, as well as for the understanding of the novel. The combination of paranoid form and massive cultural criticism, where Norway is portrayed as especially smug, hypocritical and prone to double standards, makes THE TIBERIUS CLIFF a great reading experience.”
(Hilde Slåtto, Dagsavisen, Norway)

First published: Aschehoug, 2008
Sigmund Jensen: Biography and bibliography