1 HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 2 “Sometimes I think if David Foster Wallace had finally been able to write the novel he'd dreamed of, it would read something like Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive. It's a sprawling novel of ideas and information and pop culture, but it is also a love story folded into a tale of political change. What a big gulp of history Harstad takes on, and brilliantly shows what it feels like to live through – the unseparateness of it. The eerie feeling of inevitability giving way to a new reality frame. This is also one of the best family dramas I've read in some time,because it remembers that a story is essential to family life. Who are we and what are we for? Harstad asks this question of his cast so many different ways the novel begins to feel, in its sprawling uncertain outcome, like it has the grainy flicker of life itself.” – JOHN FREEMAN – ”Harstad’s novel is both big and small, sweeping in its scope but intimate in its telling. Dense with the overwhelming detail of the everyday, it brings to mind the great realist novels of the past but without their all-knowing narrators. Written in a demotic, urgent prose that moves from suburb to city to war zone on our ever shrinking planet, Max Mischa, and the Tet Offensive is nothing less than a lament for our age—the rootless cosmopolitan’s search for what he can’t seem to find: home.” – SIRI HUSTVEDT – "There are many ways to say this, but this is probably the simplest: Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive is a great novel." – JO NESBØ – HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 3 – Ta b l e o f c o n t e n t s – Praise for MAX, MISCHA & THE TET OFFENSIVE .................................. 4 Foreign sales of novel ................................................................................ 8 Overview of novel...................................................................................... 8 Novel’s table of contents ........................................................................ 10 Synopsis & samples pages ...................................................................... 13 Sample 1 ................................ 16-27 Sample 2 ................................ 30-42 Sample 3 ................................ 45-52 Sample 4 .............................. 61-101 Sample 5 ............................. 123-152 Sample 6 ............................. 157-177 Sample 7 ............................. 181-192 Sample 8 ............................. 196-209 Sample 9 ............................. 211-217 Sample 10 ........................... 223-226 Sample 11 ........................231-239 Author bio ............................................................................................ 249 Praise for other works by Harstad .................................................... 252 Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive cover ........................................ 261 HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 4 Praise for Johan Harstad’s MAX, MISCHA, AND THE TET OFFENSIVE Norwegian original edition (2015) “Open your eyes wide! This is a novel which aims high, overflowing with the joy of storytelling, sharp reflections and a deep knowledge of the human being (...) Brutally clever!” VG ****** (6 out of 6 stars) “A gigantic novel about war, love, flight and art which takes your breath away (…) Harstad brings to life the most complex themes with a literary ease, orality and originality which make this a hypnotical read.” Dagbladet ****** (6 out of 6 stars) “A novel can do so many interesting things to you. It can induce laughter and tears, reflection and doubt, forgetting and remembering, understanding and empathy, impatience and irritation. Harstad’s novel does all of this. I have only one thing to say: Respect!” Aftenposten “Outstanding (…) It is an incredible achievement, and almost impossible to describe. You would have to experience it yourself – which you can if you read this novel.” Dagsavisen “Harstad's masterpiece (...) A truly great novel.” Adresseavisen “Brilliant colossus.” Stavanger Aftenblad “Listen to Harstad’s magnificent song.” Vårt land “A literary achievement of a rare kind, enforcing Harstad’s position as one of the leading Norwegian writers of his generation.” Morgenbladet HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 5 Dutch edition (2017) Winner of the European Literary Award 2018 “The literary event of the year.” Het Nieuwsblad ***** (Five out of five stars) “Fucking brilliant.” Fleur Speet “One of the most interesting writers of our time .” Standaard der Letteren ***** (Five out of five stars) “The talk of the town.” Jeroen Vullings, De Nieuwsshow “An engrossing novel that makes you work for it and leaves you exhausted, but impressed.” De Volkskrant “A monumental novel.” Trouw “A story like a painting by Rothko.” Het Parool “There's no doubt that Harstad's Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive is the most spectacular novel at the moment.” Theo Hakkert “The human condition portrayed in a both modern and timeless way. Readable, yet dense. A rare event.” Henk Propper “Rarely have I read a book that got under my skin like this.” Wim Opbrouck “An enormous, sprawling story about homesickness, art and the question of what home means.” Jan Magazine HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 6 Danish edition (2018) “This year’s Great American Novel is written by a Norwegian. Johan Harstad takes on the best of the best in his behemoth work on art, love and war. (…) The novel contains all the elements that characterize a classic, and then some, for the author and playwright Johan Harstad is a rarely generous person. The novel stretches over a mere 1,100 pages and a half a century, and it's not a page or a paragraph too much. (…) Remember the name Johan Harstad. He is the next big name in Scandinavian literature.” Jyllands-posten ****** (Six out of six stars) “Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive is not a single page too long. (...) Johan Harstad has an admirable ability to convey social and cultural inspirations that over the years form Max's view of the world and itself. (…) Harstad, whose love obviously does not confine himself to literature alone, also lets Max recount all the (fictional) theatrical performances and works of art that both himself and Mischa produce over the years, and this literary cultivation of art's many forms of expression has rarely been done better.” Weekendavisen “(…) when I feel confident that I will also remember the novel in a special way, it's not just because I've spent so many hours in its company these recent days – it's also because it's deeply breathtaking. (…) Such a comprehensive book cannot be given justice in this little review; Therefore, let me conclude by saying that it deserves all the readers it can get. Max, Mischa & Tet Offensive is simply among the most wonderful I have read for a long time. Information “Johan Harstad creates magic with the novel’s epic possibilities. (…) There are many types of novels, and then there’s - I'm tempted to say - Norwegian Johan Harstad’s 1,066 pages long Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive. (…) Goddamn impressive.” Politiken ***** (Five out of six stars) “The ultimate Norwegian novel about the United States and the longing to find home. The translation of Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive is a real event. (...) absolutely amazing prose. The novel (...) has bids for all conceivable readers: The politically interested , the US-interested, the Norwegian-interested, the art-theory- interested, the coming-of-age-novel-interested, the love-interested. In short: To anyone with an interest in superb art that transcends time and place and in the most peculiar way is about the reader himself .” Kristeligt Dagblad ****** (Six out of six stars) HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 7 German edition (2019) ‘It's entertaining and smart, compassionate and cheeky, sharp and rousing – simply a great novel.’ Deutschlandrundfunk Kultur ‘[A] new In Search of a Lost Time, a double Buddenbrooks for the very last generation, who was a child in the pre-digital age and who wrote letters to their parents from the holiday camp and played their favorite films on clunky VHS-tapes.’ Die Zeit ‘Johan Harstad's Max, Mischa and the Tet-Offensive is […] an attempt to combine a coming-of-age drama and an artist’s novel with stories of emigration and love. Harstad’s prose overflows with flair, cameos and details, which are never mere ends in themselves, but part of a larger whole […].’ Süddeutsche Zeitung ‘With his sumptuous novel, Johan Harstad conducts a grand experiment. A virtuoso, the Norwegian author joins the dots between the Vietnam war, friendship, art, and migration to the USA into a credible story about life.’ taz ‘[…] like a natural phenomenon, almost a tsunami […] As entertaining as it is astute, and as amusing as it is melancholic. He takes on so much and still manages not to overexert himself. Have we ever read a book that deals with so much, has such high aims and works with so many references to art, theatre, literature and film, all without failing?’ Berliner Zeitung ‘Johan Harstad has written a “great American novel”.’ NDR ‘Johan Haarstad’s novel is wonderful, but - if I was to complain about anything – it would be that it is too short. This story deserves more than 1200 pages!’ Matthias Brandt ‘The most recent Great American Novel comes from a Norwegian: Johan Harstad's Max, Mischa and the Tet Offensive is a shrewd epic of hapless people.’ FAZ HARSTAD / Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive 8 Rights to MAX, MISCHA & THE TET OFFENSIVE have been sold to: Germany (Rowohlt) France (Editions du Seuil) The Netherlands (Uitgeverij Podium) Spain (Tres Hermanas ediciones) Denmark (Politiken / C&K) Max, Mischa & The Tet Offensive Quick overview Max Hansen is sleepless in the Midwest. He is a theatre director on tour across the US. It’s possible that he has turned into an American. He hasn’t been home for over 20 years. If it was up to him he would never have left the place he was born, a suburb of Stavanger on the west coast of Norway called Forus, where kids could make as much noise as they wanted while their fathers were working on the oil rigs in the North Sea, and where a heavy silence descended on the houses when they returned.