Terje Holtet Larsen

The dilettante

An author is invited to a gentleman's club, The Dandy Dilettantes, where he meets the dapper Oskar Muri Jnr. As if in a mirror, he sees himself in the man's smooth face. The story that follows is an account of Oskar Muri Jnr.'s upbringing in his parents' pompous upstart house and of his adult existence in his aunt's huge downtown flat, of the grandeur and downfall of his ancestors, and of his life in the shadow of his little brother, who died in what everybody took to be a tragic accident. Everybody but Oskar himself.

A tragic family saga, an understated comedy, an enigmatic, inverted self-portrait - The Dilettante is a fascinating, inventive and hugely enjoyable novel.