Literature and Fiction · Hardback

The Little Man from Argentina

Norwegian title: Den lille mannen fra Argentina

Kristian Klausen

One of the worst war criminals in history arrives in Drammen in May 1960. He has escaped his pursuers to start a new life and is renting a flat in a building in Konnerudgata. He gets a job as a night watchman at a paper mill. He frequents a local café and learns Norwegian. He enters into a relationship with the novel’s other main character, Martha Dreyer, an author who lives two floors above him. Due to this relationship, his usual defence mechanisms start to fail. He starts to feel guilty. But even though he is troubled by his actions, he still struggles to acknowledge the scope of them.

The historical figure is Adolf Eichmann, one of those chiefly responsible for organising the Holocaust.