Knut Faldbakken is regarded as one of the best contemporary Norwegian writers. Sweetwater is the sequel to the widely acclaimed Twilight Country. In this book he portrays unflinchingly the behaviour of people in a disintegrating society against an unforgettable landscape of decay and collapse.
Faldbakken studied psychology at Oslo University, and then worked as a journalist. He visited a number of countries, working variously as a bookkeeper, sailor, and factory worker, and began writing books in 1967 while living in Paris.
"Knut Faldbakken (1941-), a prolific Norwegian novelist, wrote a science-fictional duology titled Sweetwater early in his career. The first volume, Twilight Country (1974, trans. Joan Tate, 1993), followed an odd collection of refugees from a disintegrating urban metropolis, the titular Sweetwater, as they cast off the entangling membranes of lost paths and the weight of melancholy souls [...]"