When Øystein Lønn made his literary debut in 1966, he did so alongside several younger writers from the Profil group, named after the University of Oslo literary journal that was a key outlet for their works and criticism. Although Lønn did not belong to this group, developing his style and themes independently, he shares with many of its writers a combination of modernistic and realistic modes. Describing his approach to storytelling in an interview in Dialoger, Lønn paradoxically stated that "Fiksjon er den ypperste form for dokumentarisme" (Fiction is the best form of documentarism), claiming that he writes "for å ta et utsnitt av verden sånn som jeg ser den og sånn som jeg opplever det, og fortelle det så nøyaktig, så pinlig nøyaktig som jeg kan" (in order to take an...