“Grabs the reader. An account of growing up that is unrivalled in Norwegian literature. (…) I will never forget the depiction of the protagonist’s years as a homeless drug addict, and the humiliating experience of constantly having to beg for a place to sleep for the night. (…) Nikolai Torgersen’s prose is straightforward and concrete, while he constantly reflects on what he’s writing about . The novel is a kind of depiction of popular life from a social stratum that very few of us ever come into contact with. (…) Streets I Have Lived is not a perfect or clever book. But it will grab you today, and you won’t escape!”
Sindre Hovdenakk, VG, 6/6 stars
“A white-hot memoir … Nikolai Torgersen writes shockingly well about sex, drugs, psychiatry and an extremely traumatic childhood. (…) There is no cool distance, everything burns. (…) Despite all the suffering, Streets I Have Lived is strikingly devoid of self-pity. Rather, Nikolai Torgersen shows himself to be a sharp and perceptive analyst, who can both question his own role as ‘supplier for a voyeurism that cries out for satisfaction – and lift his strange life story to a point where it reveals something significant about class, rank and social institutions in neoliberal Norway.”
Leif Bull, DN
“Nikolai Torgersen can do more than paint. His literary debut is astonishingly good. Rarely have I encountered such a confidant voice in a debut (…) proves that there is far more to Torgersen than a sad childhood (…) an extraordinary debut.”
Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK, 5/6 stars
“Powerful (…) A unique portrayal of a childhood filled with poverty, substance abuse and homelessness in an increasingly prosperous Norway. (…) I can’t remember having read an equally intense depiction of wandering around Oslo and seeking refuge in alcohol or drugs to forget the life you live.’
Marius Wulfsberg, Dagbladet, 5/6 stars
“With distance and sparkling clear sentences, told from the head via the body, he thinks about art, about his loyalty to and love for his parents, the lumpenproletariat that no-one who hasn’t experienced it themselves realises exists in rich Norway (…) This young talent from a poor background, who describes a reality that very few readers of literature have any experience of, wields enormous power by telling his reality on his own terms.”
Hilde Slåtto, Vårt Land
