The author Kaja Baumgarten is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January in 2002 and she thinks to herself: “This was my destination. I would have lived differently if I had known.” The diagnosis leads to a reassessment of her life, and the novel’s first part offers glimpses of a controlled and bourgeois existence and depicts the crisis that occurs following the diagnosis. In 2008 the author meets a man at a sanatorium. Kaja is ill and so is Vegard Vinsnes. The two nonetheless form a relationship that turns upside down and jeopardizes everything that has been up until now. Vegard finds Kaja’s notes for a novel about him, and their love is put to the test. Because who is actually exploiting whom here?

Liv Køltzow’s books hold a central position in Norwegian literature. She is known for her shrewd psychological insight. With Announcement to all Travellers, she expands her repertoire with a new rebellious energy. Announcement to all Travellers is a powerful novel about money and love. It is also a unique depiction of illness and an author’s struggle to continue her evolution as an artist.

“Announcement to all Travellers makes the reader understand what it is like living with Parkinson’s disease …”
Toril Moi