Literature and Fiction · Hardback

The Saabye Circus

Norwegian title: Saabyes cirkus

Lars Saabye Christensen

I Fell in Paris.

A writer, who possibly resembles the author, falls from a stage in Paris. At this awful moment, while he’s flailing with his arms and waving a final farewell, he sees himself standing outside Brun’s Music & Notes shop in Bygdøy Allé admiring a red Fender Stratocaster. He is 13 years old and knows just one thing: he has to have that guitar. He has 43 Norwegian kroner in his bank account and the guitar costs 2,250 kroner. A new world opens up for him when he gets a job delivering flowers for Finsen’s Flora in Frogner.

This is a true story based on a lie. Or perhaps the other way round: a lie based on a true story. A writer follows his tracks back to a guitar and a bouquet of flowers in the city he grew up in. With this literary piece, Lars Saabye Christensen marks his 30th anniversary as a writer.