As a 15 year old, Bernhard Herre falls in love with Camilla Wergeland, sister of the Norwegian romantic poet Henrik Wergeland and herself, in later life, a pioneering novelist and feminist. But Camilla’s attention is turned towards Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Henrik’s ideological rival. To be close to Camilla, Bernhard becomes a messenger between her and Johann in their secret love affair, and he does all he can to become a confidante of both.

Herre is the story of an agonizing love triangle, where the main character tries to live out his erotic obsession and unrequited love through another man, with devastating results. Bernhard Herre died of a stray shot in the forest outside of Oslo in 1849.

Niels Fredrik Dahl has written a powerful, imaginative novel about a man who can’t bear himself, about trying to borrow the light from others and about watching love from afar.