Do exactly what you want, that's my idea?the drama exists in his voice' Lydia DavisArmand is a diplomat rising through the ranks of the Norwegian foreign office, but he's caught between his public duty to support foreign wars in the Middle East and his private disdain of Western intervention.

Told exclusively in footnotes to an unwritten novel, Solstad's unconventional "Armand V" follows a Norwegian diplomat's objection to war in the Middle East, exacerbated when his son joins the battle. Solstad's work has won praise from Haruki Murakami, James Wood and Lydia Davis.