Nullpluss
Doctor Tremor Harding, a middle aged, reknown laser researcher, resident in the small town Lagendonk- a place out of time and space- is a satisfied man.
His life has already had a considerable amount of pleasurable and interesting experiences he is thankful for- he can not think of more he wants to accomplish.
He thus has nothing to lose by putting life into a seemingly fatal experiment:
He will eat himself.
The experiment is performed in an optimistic, scientific and systematic spirit, and is both a one month long feast and a journey towards new realizations.
«Zero Plus» is an outrageous and at the same time fascinating novel – in other words, a book in the typical and intense Nygårdshaug style. Masterfully, the author combines the comical and the macabre, myth and science, play and logic.
Nygårdshaug plays an unpretencious game with our fixed image of the world and our existence
Bergens Tidende, Norway
Another strong encounter with a different author. Gert Nygårdshaug is describing a world that "hits you" and even the most unthinkable ending of a story seems quite natural to the reader. You think "Yes, of course."
AnnKristin´s Blogg, Norway
Thought provoking, fascinating, educational and beautiful novel...Still, many years later, I get a good feeling when I think of this book
Stella Magazine, Norway
Challenging, encouraging, enriching. Nullpluss confirms Gert Nygårdshaugs position as an authors originality that can not be matched.
Morgenbladet, Norway
As a born and bred Norwegian, I have always been a huge fan of Gert Nygårdshaug. He was one of my very first literary crushes. After discovering Mengele Zoo, I was completely hooked and I religiously devoured everything that he wrote, over and over. Nullpluss was for me a mind-blowing experience. I must have been around twelve or thirteen the first time I read it. And what a thrill! The absurdity of the whole concept, the eccentric characters, the folie douce, the reflective playfulness of it all. I felt like I could see the author’s crooked smile as he was dragging me along this deliciously unpredictable path. My great fear when I picked up the novel again, so many years later, was that I wouldn’t find the same thrill as when I first discovered it. That’s happened to me before, that feeling of regret, like my adult self has ruined the reading experience of my younger self. But this was so not the case with Nullpluss. It remains one of my absolute favorite books – unlike anything I have ever read, before or since, completely in its own unidentifiable category, where it will remain.
Hege Rouel-Rousson, Editor, Actes Sud
Gert Nygårdshaug has an overflowing imagination and writes with ease, as evidenced by his long list of publications…This original story merits your attention, the hero's self-consumption functioning as an effective metaphor for the self-destructive society that surrounds him.
Le Monde, France