Walking with Kølle

Walking with Kølle is a travelogue about to expeditions to Europe. Karen Røise Kielland walks from the village Hov in south-east Norway to Venice, following the footsteps of the artist, adventurer and walking tourist Catharina Hermine Kølle, who walked the same route in 1841. As far as possible, Kielland follows the same roads. And like…

Walking with Kølle is a travelogue about to expeditions to Europe. Karen Røise Kielland walks from the village Hov in south-east Norway to Venice, following the footsteps of the artist, adventurer and walking tourist Catharina Hermine Kølle, who walked the same route in 1841. As far as possible, Kielland follows the same roads. And like Kølle, she gets by without maps, telephone or music.

Walking with Kølle is an illustrated journey through a European cultural landscape. At the same time, the book is a journey in time, through Kølle’s diary entries, which work as a historical road map for the author, and through traces of the past in objects, architecture and art. It is an original and fascinating reflection on cultural history and social change, about distance and speed, then and now.

Reviews

“A powerful portrit of another Europe; a rendezvous with slowness, in search of meaning”.
Andrew Kroglund, Vårt Land, Best of 2019

“This is a travelogue – and it’s very good … In the interplay between the notes from the road and these shorter reflections, Kielland creates a dialogue with the landscape and history, opening up for associations and anecdotes about the strangest things … You might expect that Kielland would be a melancholic writer, but far from it – and that is one of the book’s strengths. As a storyteller she is impatient, nervous, funny, constantly in dialogue with both herself and with Kølle … Kielland’s surface tests are not restricted to pessimistic observations: This is a sparkling, exuberant book”
Klassekampen

Å gå med Kølle

Walking with Kølle

Contact agent

Henrik Francke

Reviews