Doppler is an average man living an average life near Oslo in Norway, together with his wife and children, a boy and a girl.  One day he goes cycling and he falls on his head.  And when he gets up after his fall he decides to go and live in the woods above Oslo, on his own.  He packs his rucksack, and leaves a note saying that he's walking in the woods, and that they shouldn't wait for dinner.  And six months later he still lives there.

One day he decides to kill a moose  He looks for the perfect spot for an ambush, drops some hay there, and waits.  But he kills a mother-moose, and now he's stuck with a calf which he calls Bongo.  Bongo could be worse company, as they have hour-long conversations during which Bongo does the listening and Doppler the talking  Life doesn't really look that bad for Doppler, but then his wife announces she's pregnant and she wants him home for the birth, and a right-wing man decides to live as Doppler, near Doppler, too near for his comfort...

On the surface this is a silly story written in a simple and naieve style.  An easily read story about a misantropic man who just steps out of society, unless when there are things he needs, like half-skimmed milk, or an axe.  The utter dry seriousness of the narration gives everything a surreal and most hilarious feel - I laughed out loud when Doppler has long conversations during Bongo's adolescense, conversations during which the moody adolescent angrily stamps out of the tent, but returns meekly every time.

Underneath the surface there's the story of a man in a midlife crisis who has turned his back on society, tired of the cleverness that surrounds him.  A dark and compelling story, almost pessimistic, about what's meaningful or meaningless, about loneliless perhaps, definitely about finding one's place in the sun.  Or in the woods, in this case.