The Waiter

As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis, The Waiter is a brilliantly exquisite view into an uproariously vigilant life of service and protocol. In Faldbakken’s skilled hands, a mordant, lonely waiter in a declining restaurant becomes a raw, scrupulous force, powering one of the most purely entertaining novels I've read in years. This book is a meal you won’t want to finish. * J. Ryan Stradal * Faldbakken has a way with non-action. He builds a delicious tension between the paucity of events and the lavishness of the technique with which they are described. * New York Times * A sly amuse bouche of a novel . . . its atmosphere and observations are deliciously rich. * Mail on Sunday * Bringing to mind Mervyn Peake and Wes Anderson, with some of Nathanael West’s deadpan grotesque, this is a beguiling, quirky entertainment. * Kirkus * A quirky slice of life * Los Angeles Times * Good fun - but you sense a more earnest point, too, as [the waiter] snatches rare downtime to scroll nervily through the jumble of disaster footage and cat videos flooding into his phone, making the faded grandeur of his 19th-century establishment a symbol of broader, post-internet worries over what we've lost. * Daily Mail * An elegantly made parody, embossed with an abundance of humor, sharp observations and piercing social criticism . . . truly remarkable. * Dagsavisen * Utterly wonderful . . . a novel you will have a hard time putting out of your mind . . . a gem. * Hamar Arbeiderblad * It seems so effortlessly and candidly written, but truly it numbers among the most uncompromising works I have read in very long time. A unique read many ought to treat themselves to. * VG *