This darkly humoristic neo-noir drama explores the themes of friendship, crime, loneliness and tragic death.
Critics both in Renberg's native Norway and abroad have hailed it as a career high and compared him with the likes of Balzac, George R.R.
Pål, divorced father of two, has a shameful secret that has dragged him into a huge debt, a lot more than he can ever hope to pay with his modest civil servant salary.
Over three fateful September days, these lives cross in a whirlwind of brutality, laughter, tragedy and love that will change them forever.
Renberg was known for his five novels spanning the young life and adulthood of Jarle Klepp (The Man Who Loved Yngve, The Orheim Company, Charlotte Isabel Hansen / I Travel Alone, Pixley Mapogo, These Are My Old Days) - a literary character resembling, to a certain extent, the author himself.
However, Renberg was eager to challenge himself and take his literature a step further, moving away from autobiography and wholly embracing fiction and imaginative storytelling.
The chapters are named with titles, blending a feel of the classic 19th century novel of Dickens or Balzac, with the modern rock album and American grit/pulp.
Among the 11 voices in See You Tomorrow there is no clear protagonist, but it could be argued that the centre of the novel is the petty criminal gang-leader Jan Inge Haraldsen, who stands as a sort of baroque chief in this universe, both literary and in terms of content.
As the novel progresses, the reader learns that Cecilie is pregnant, but that she does not know who the father is: her boyfriend Rudi, or Tong, the inmate she's been visiting in prison.
He is a major fan of classic heavy metal like AC/DC and Motörhead, he has ADD/ADHD and he considers speech golden and silence overrated.
For the romantic couple Cecilie and Rudi, Renberg has stated that Lula and Sailor in Barry Gifford´s Wild at Heart as a major influence, as well as David Lynch´s 1990 adaptation of the same novel.
Jan Inge started his criminal career in his teens, lending his sister out “like a VHS” (Rudi) in return for favors.
Jan Inge, now 120 kilos and lonely, also reckons himself a modern-day leader, constantly reading books on leadership theory.
Unlike the two other persons in the house, metal is not his favorite music, he prefers old school country & western like Tammy Wynette and Kitty Wells.
The rule has been broken several times, and as See You Tomorrow unravels, Jan Inge must face the fact that he himself has become a killer.
His economy is in bad shape, he has gotten himself a debt of well over one million Norwegian kroners, and in a pathetic attempt to solve his problems he makes contact with a guy he knew when he grew up and whom he has heard turned criminal: Rudi.
Tiril writes LOVE/HATE on her knuckles, and says that one day she will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas – the hometown of Amy Lee, the singer of her favorite band, Evanescence.
He began writing about Sandra in 2007, as a single portrait of a naîve and desperate young girl madly in love with a no-good super-hot foster home kid, not knowing what to do with this text.
Daniel is seventeen years old, living with his foster mom Inger Ulland and her deaf daughter Veronika, and he is described as a boy “there were so many rumours about”, “the one in sixth grade nobody dared to talk to, the one all the girls thought was so hot with those deep eyes of his, and dangerous.” He is in love with Sandra, the meet at night after she finishes her evening job, but he is also drawn to the mystical Veronika.
The eclectic Teksas-novels come with a unique blend of Nordic social realism, southern gothic and the rich pulp of Western popular culture.
The novels are collective stories written in the tradition of William Faulkner, clearly also heavily influenced by the modern revolution in TV-series; The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood.
Attack From All Sides, plot summary: The brilliant Sandnes boy Ben is fed up with his stingy father and psychotic mother.
Supporters of the Christian party, they are into heavy metal and don't give a damn about the rules laid down by an oil-rich society.
With his frightened older brother Rikki in tow, Ben leaves their childhood home and sets off on a journey that will be catastrophic for some and a shining success for others.
Their acquaintance with Video Boy and the others who hang out at his house becomes an introduction to the strange and frightful, a yet undiscovered world of horror and grit.
The penmanship, the personification and the abundantly idiomatic dialogue make See You Tomorrow and Attack From All Sides brilliantly realistic prose, not just within Scandinavia, but among the international elite.” Expressen (Sweden) wrote “Tore Renberg is one of this year's most brightly shining stars ...
In vital, maximalist prose, the characters' perspectives change in a weaving movement, slowly taking us to an amazing crescendo.
The tone feels new, fresh and heartfelt.” Stephanie Boland (The Quietus) wrote of See You Tomorrow: “aspects of the novel seem utterly ordinary, but taken in its behemoth whole, it dazzles ... See You Tomorrow is as boundary crossing as its author: defying easy genre designations, it centres around a crime story, but tempers its grit with romance, humour and a generous dose of pop culture.” In Denmark, Kristeligt Dagblad called See You tomorrow a “wonderful novel” – and you devour it in huge, greedy gulps.”, and The Danish Information wrote “It is wild, but also wildly funny...
A book that involves both bursts of laughter and compassion… a joyful display of literary expression.” In Norway VG, Dagbladet, Fædrelandsvennen, Addresseavisen, Trønder-Avisa, Tønsberg Blad og Brabok.no awarded See You Tomorrow 6 out of 6 stars.
Addresseavisen wrote: “See You Tomorrow is impressive in every aspect - from its composition, language and credibility to its wit, palette and crescendos.’ Aftenposten called it: ‘A criminal display of power… a vitalistic tour de force” and Dagsavisen: “Six hundred pages of pure energy”.