Scandinavian Heritage Highlighted at Novel Ideas

Minnesota author Eric Dregni will be signing his new book In Cod We Trust:  Living the Norwegian Dream at Novel Ideas Bookstore in Baileys Harbor on Thursday, July 2 at 1 pm. Dregni will also present a slide show of his travels in Norway as part of the event.

Fed pickled herring and gjetost brown cheese as a toddler, Eric Dregni grew up in Norway’s colony in America:  Minnesota. As the recipient of a 2004 Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing, Dregni lived in Trondheim, Norway where he survived a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, took the “meat bus” to Sweden for cheap salami with a busload of knitting pensioners, and discovered his great-grandfather’s house in the Lusterfjord only to find out it had been crushed by a boulder then swept away by a river.

In Cod We Trust is a vivid portrayal of modern Norway through the eyes of a fourth-generation Norwegian American from Minnesota. In this cross-cultural memoir, Dregni tells the hair-raising, hilarious, and sometimes poignant stories of his family’s yearlong Norwegian experiment.

Currently, Dregni is an assistant professor of English and Journalism at Concordia University in St. Paul.  He is a freelance writer for Metro, The Norwegian-American Weekly, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Novel Ideas is located at 8085 State Highway 57 in Baileys Harbor. For more information call 920.839.1300 or visit http://www.novelideas-books.com.