Hobo Highbrow is a writer and content with life despite not having a book published in a decade. Then he loses his proofreading job and lover. What else can he do for solace but turn to art? A meeting with Paul Waaktaar-Savoy of the pop group a-ha in the street one day somehow gives him the feeling of serendipity, that he might somehow be somewhat special himself, perhaps even a genius – just like the great Waaktar-Savoy himself.
People from all over the world have read the English edition of this light and entertaining novel first published in Norwegian in 2002. It is far from necessary to be an a-ha fan though to be captivated by the endearing Thurber-like character of Hobo Highbrow.
Hobo, a newspaper copywriter who writes on the side and dreams of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, believes he is the only one able to fully understand the three band members of a-ha (and particularly Paul Waaktaar-Savoy), who hit the top of the U.S. and many other countries' charts back in 1985 with their unforgettable hit Take On Me. On the way to revealing his inner self to the genius he believes Paul Waaktaar-Savoy to be, the unsuccessful writer Hobo loses his job, almost loses his girlfriend, and most definitely loses his grip on reality!
When published in Norway in 2002, Drømmer om storhet received considerable attention from the reviewing press. The German translation, Die Ordnung der Worte, published in 2007, also garnered rave reviews. The British translator and writer Jon Buscall did the English translation and gave the book the new title of The Scoundrel Days of Hobo Highbrow, which refers to a-ha's second album of 1986, Scoundrel Days.
