A Young Man’s Confessions of Love

A Young Man’s Confessions of Love opens with the words «Dear Daddy». The novel is a montage of confessions, YouTube links, short movies, private letters and allegedly authentic quotes from interviews given by Frode Saugstad to newspapers and magazines, and, not least, printouts from a paternity case that, according to the heading dates, has circulated in the Norwegian legal system for 30 years.

Frode Saugestad’s first novel is an aching and honest story about yearning, lost childhood, contaminated love and self-loathing, and about how an apparently successful human being purposely decides to ruin himself through lack of love in orde to arise as a new person.

«Frode Saugestad’s literary debut, A Young Man’s Confessions Concerning Love, [is] the ultimate postmodern novel. [...] A Young Man’s Confessions is a ”post-novel”, a novel following the collapse of the novel, and also a novel that demonstrates the collapse. »Per Buvik, Morgenbladet

« A Young Man’s Confessions Concerning Love has an unpolished and randomly amassed in-your-face quality. »Olaf Haagensen, Vagant

«There is a tremendous soreness and openness in A Young Man’s Confessions Concerning Love. […]A Young Man’s Confessions Concerning Love manages to expand the literary limits for self-exposure, whether the content actually adheres to reality or not.»Bjørn Gabrielsen, Dagens Næringsliv

«Unrestrained, unlimited and highly self-exposing […] It is disgusting and attractive at the same time, and regardless of any moral or ethical reservations it is also a fascinating literary project.»Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

«Saugestad has written a dark, violent and exhausting book, but there are also comical elements, especially when he addresses his supposed successfulness […] Saugestad writes about emotions most of us wouldn’t even dare to mention.»Stein Roll, Adresseavisen

«As an autobiographical writer he is a genius.»Kasiami Kolajewska, Utropia