A journey to find Norway’s supposed bliss makes for a comic travelogue that asks, seriously, what makes Norwegians so damn happy—and does it translate?

Norway is usually near or at the top of the World Happiness Report. But is it really one of the happiest countries on Earth? Eric Dregni had his doubts. Years ago he and his wife had lived in this country his great-great-grandfather once fled. When their son Eilif was born there, the Norwegian government paid for the birth, gave them $5,000, and deposited $150 into their bank account every month, but surely happiness was more than a generous health care system. What about all those grim months without sun? When Eilif turned fifteen, father and son decided to go back together and investigate. For the Love of Cod is their droll report on the state of purported Norwegian bliss.

Arriving in May, a month of festivals and eternal sun, the Dregnis are thrust into Norway at its merriest—and into the reality of the astronomical cost of living, which forces them to find lodging with friends and relatives. But this gives them an inside look at the secrets to a better life. It’s not the massive amounts of money flowing from the North Sea oil fields but how these funds are distributed that fuels the Norwegian version of democratic socialism—resulting in miniscule differences between rich and poor. Locals introduce them to the principles underlying their avowed contentment, from an active environmentalism that translates into flyskam (flight shame), which keeps Norwegians in the family cabin for the long vacations prescribed by law and charges a 150 percent tax on gas guzzlers (which, Eilif observes, means more Teslas seen in one hour than in a year in Minnesota!). 

From a passion for dugnad or community volunteerism and sakte or “slow,” a rejection of the mad pace of modernity, to the commodification of Viking history and the dark side of Black Metal music that turns the idea of quaint, traditional Norway upside down, this idiosyncratic father and son tour lets readers, free of flyskam, see how, or whether, Norwegian happiness translates.

A father’s memoir of creating a dual-language household to prepare for a stint living abroad—and all of the ensuing challenges and rewards

After living in Modena, Italy, for three years, Eric Dregni and his wife, Katy, had a dream of returning one day—future children in tow—to give their kids the experience of living abroad. When their children finally arrive, they decide to raise them with a global perspective in a bilingual household: Katy speaking only English to them and Eric speaking only Italian.

Despite their extended family’s confusion about their experiment, they persist through their three kids’ childhoods, sending them to an immersion language camp and working to prepare them for life abroad. Eventually, the family packs up and moves to Florence, where the bambini can stop to see Michelangelo’s David on the way back from school, indulge in fresh pasta and gelato, and learn how to argue like real Italians. Sooner than anyone would like, three months of la dolce vita comes to an end, and they head back to Minnesota, trying to bring a taste of Italian culture home with them.

A fast-paced memoir/travelogue, Raising Bilingual Bambini is Dregni’s passionate testament to the value of an international perspective, loving tribute to the family’s time together in Italy, and bittersweet reflection on what it meant to return to Minnesota (that is, until their trip to Sicily several years later). Writing with his signature humor and sincerity, he offers a heartfelt story about family and finding a home together in a new place.

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