Winner of the Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Award 2001
Winner of the P2 Listeners’ Best Novel Award 2001
Nominated for the Brage Prize 2001

Carl Frode Tiller’s debut novel centres mainly on the sorrow inherent in the knowledge that everything might have been different. A young man is confined within a psychiatric institution, having committed crimes he does not properly comprehend but cannot altogether erase from his memory. A psychologist encourages him to write, and as he does so, childhood memories and incidents begin to resurface.
With brutal realism we learn how a childhood marked by coldness, helplessness and loneliness moulds a person. However, through the protagonist’s fervent endeavors to understand and to keep his world intact, the reader also gets to know a despairing and sensitive human being.

In addition to receiving the 2001 Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Award, THE SLOPE was the first debut novel ever to be nominated for the prestigious Brage Prize. It also won Tiller several other awards.

Praise for THE SLOPE:

“Here, Strindberg’s dream technique, Elling’s neuroses and Bret Easton Ellis’ malevolence are superimposed on one another with chilling power and effect” (Dagsavisen)

“Strong meat indeed… so elegantly written that it is a joy to read. This is a skilfully written novel in which form and content dovetail completely”
(Dagbladet)

”I cannot recommend THE SLOPE warmly enough. And believe it or not: There are also small, tiny-tiny-small, islands of humour and greatness of life in this ocean of discomfort and pain. Unparalleled!”
(Kristeligt Dagblad)

“it is an extraordinarily naked and sharp novel. Not many novels are published that possess this level of intensity and clarity”
(Politiken)