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Jens Bjorneboe A sublime genius of a storyteller.' —Bucherei und Bildung m mm E »$6.95 Moment of Freedom Jens Bj0rneboe ". . . meal this bitter last . . . prepared by Swift and Kafka and the mystics of Evil, but also powerfully by Bj^rneboe himself." — Der Spiegel, Hamburg "More important than all the novels I know from the last decade." —Miinchener Abendzeitung Such reactions from German critics to profoundly disturbing novel are startling. Mr. Bj0rneboe is the pre-eminent Norwegian novelist of our time, and this novel is a devastating revelation of the this German The valley, of his character. narrator, a court clerk in an alpine sets life — out to write down the story his perception of truth. With he describes bestialities and beauties, the world "full of stars and excrement," of freedom and what the vision it is and of unfreedom and why a of painter, it is. And he describes, too, the German cross to which he is nailed. He recognizes his love for things Germanic, despite his perception of the German character. Slowly he realizes that all his attempts to perceive order in life lead only to his acceptance of the chaos of life. moment Thus the narrator arrives at his of truth, his realization of what life and death for him and the between the two. He knows at last what he must accept from his past to free his present; to live uncoerced by power, unpersuaded by friends; to take constitutes struggle for himself the liberty of stating his critique in order to live in his The power own moment of truth. of this novel derives from superb writing, narrative drive, philosophic humor, sensuality, and an apocalyptic view of mankind. It may be that rare event a work of literature. insights, — ISBN 0-393-08719-0 Moment of Freedom Novels in English by Jens Bj0rneboe THE LAST OF THESE WITHOUT A STITCH Jens B]0rneboe MOMENT OF FREEDOM The Heiligenberg Manuscript Translated from the Norwegian by Esther Greenleaf Murer W-W- Norton Company • Inc • New York Copyright © 1975 by Jens Bj0rneboe. Originally published in Norwegian under the title Frihetens 0yeblikk © 1966 by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada by George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bj0rneboe, Jens, 1920Moment of freedom. A novel. Translation of Frihetens 0yeblikk. I. Title. PZ4.B6258M03 [PT8950.B528] 839.8V374 ISBN O-393-08719-O 74-34032 This book was designed by Victoria Gomez. Typefaces used are Times Roman and Bauer Bodoni. Set by New England Typographic Service, Inc. Printing and binding were done by Haddon Craftsmen, Inc. 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 0 Doch in dir ist schon begonnen was die Sonnen übersteht The Cities One uring the several years that I’ve now been a Servant of Justice, I haven’t been able to avoid acquiring a certain perspective on life. The varied and wandering existence which I’ve led, the age I have reached, the enormous number of different kinds of people I have met; in short: the countless impedimenta of experience which I’ve accumulated in the course of time— these have been sifted through and sorted out over the last few years during my daily attendance in the courtroom. I’ve always had an uncommon ability to ad