Norway has done remarkably well during phase 1 of the corona pandemic. We’ve no qualms about opening the store, while doing this new dance with our guests and customers. Adapt or die etc. It’s truly a joy to shoot the breeze again. Believe us, though; when the next swell in Covid-19 cases looms we’ll batten the hatches right quick. The doors will snap shut like a Venus flytrap up in here. Because we love you.

Back in the plague days the shop actually shut before the lockdown orders came. We hope it was a one-off, against better judgment. Now if Sweden could please get their act together, Scandinavia will be back where we belong: topping the happiness ind… — Back in the plague days the shop actually shut before the lockdown orders came. We hope it was a one-off, against better judgment. Now if Sweden could please get their act together, Scandinavia will be back where we belong: topping the happiness index! Photo Kristianne Opsal Marøy

Cappelens Forslag is an independent bookstore located in Bernt Ankers gate 4 in the center of Oslo. We sell interesting books; new, second hand or antiquarian titles, mainly in English and Norwegian. Our stock is carefully curated and omits most current bestsellers, chick lit, crime and self help. Unless they are extremely well written, out there weird, contrarian or from a different epoch – then they’re interesting again, though not always for the reasons they were published, and they’re back on our shelves. And boy, do we have a lot of weird ones. Modern and post modern classics no longer carried by chain stores, the cult lit they never stocked in the first place, chapbooks from micropublishers, centuries old editions, signed first eds and other rarities.

We’ve published two books of our own: Cappelen’s Forslag’s Conversational Lexicon, volumes I and II. Both books have been reprinted many times, and volume II won the Gold Prize in the annual competition The Year’s Most Beautiful Books arranged by Grafill, the Norwegian organisation for visual communication. Exquisite and timeless, the jury said. A version of the books have been translated to German, under the title Weltwissen für Analogdenker. Cappelens Forslag has a special mention in Lonely Planet’s guide to Norway, as well as being a reason in the German travel guide “111 gründe, Norwegen zu Lieben”(111 reasons to love Norway) written by Gabriele Haefs.

Also, the store hosts A LOT of concerts along with readings, launches, parties, debate nights, a regular death café etc. There have been two weddings in the shop so far, and one fistfight.

Do visit. You are most welcome.

Cappelens Forslag in The Guardian:

George Saunders and Jarvis Cocker help turn 'freak of publishing nature' into hit

Norway's hazmat booksellers: keeping Oslo reading during coronavirus - video

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