Diplomatsønnen Martin was 13 years old when he began to drink in the hide

Washington, DC, early 90s: the House they have moved into feel giant. It has carpeted stairs leading up to own wings, smijernsporter, a private swimming pool.

Martin Svedman is 13 years old. His father has just taken with his family to the united STATES, where he got a job at the royal Norwegian embassy in Washington.

In the basement is the freezer with vodkaflaska. The fine place that their parents don't drink by yourself, which can only be taken forward when the guests come. Martin bring it. Drink. Feel the euphoria.

I'm 11
drink vodka
from the freezer in the basement
walking up stairs
over the soft carpet
brushing your teeth
add me
on baderomsmatten
I'm laughing I'm crying
is concentrated
euphoric

(From the "When I drink" by Martin Svedman)

Drank, not like other

- It is the way I remember it. Even though I was not 11 years, " says Martin Svedman.

It was the first time he drank. The start of an obsession.

HOME: Martin Svedman at home in the apartment at Frogner. Photo: Christian Roth Christensen Show more

- I didn't drink like other people. Someone takes out two glasses and become tired. I just wanted to have more. I loved the effect of alcohol. To eventually overthrow it all, " says Svedman.

He's been 41 years. Business who works with market analysis. Dad to a boy of five years, he has an apartment at Frogner, and have completed forfatterstudiet at the university of Tromsø.

On the table stands a glass of water. It is eight years since the Svedman cut the alcohol. Now he comes with the poetry collection "When I drink" at Cappelen Damm. Poetry inspired by life. Dagbladet reviewer Change the Drug called it a "quiet, strong debut" and gave the roll of the dice five.

Knallsterkt about to become an alcoholic as a child

- The big question for me was a long time, why I drink?

my Parents had a perfectly normal relationship to alcohol. They took a glass of wine. It is also the background to he in the book. I come from an enlightened, rich in resources home, with the knowledge of alcoholism, where it was not necessarily skambelagt, but quite open, " says Svedman.

in november
I dress me naked
turns out kjellervinduene
in the villa with a peisspade
go over the highway
jumps from a pier
stand a long time in the cold water
will swim out
do not print
have not drunk finished

(From the "When I drink")

Easy access to alcohol -

- to write lightly about something that is serious, it is the whole project, " says Svedman.

Svedman believe there are few fictional books that tell how it is to be an alcoholic from the inside.

- There is much that is written about to be kin to, or be the child of an alcoholic. These poems are alkoholikeren. This is the disease talking.

the Protagonist of the poems have "an endowment for ecstasy". The alcohol makes him euphoric. The same felt Svedman.

And that diplomatsønn was access to alcohol big, according to Svedman. There were foreign guests, large companies, and a full bar. No pitched alarm when the golden line in the whisky-bottle was constantly lower.

- my Parents had a lot of representation and parties. It is the perfect if you are interested in the alcohol. But I have a brother a sister, they did not tempt. We are born different. Are you tired after a glass, driver you not and rapper bottles.

He was drawn towards the others who drank a lot. Parties in college were wild. He got the black outer. But while most other peers as married, and was nyreligiøse, moved Martin just ahead.

Lars Saabye Christensen: - While one is in the midst of it, pushing it into the font, between the lines Newspaper Plus

First to Israel where he completed high school. As to the business graduate studies in Paris, where it was common to take two beers at lunch.

a Consultant with withdrawal symptoms

Then he got konsulentjobb in London, wrote evaluation reports about the effects of EU-policy. My colleagues were young and attached hard. While Svedman had to drink more and more to get the effect of the alcohol.

When he's not drinking, came the withdrawal symptoms appear. His hands were shaking. Once he managed not to enter pin-code on their own bank cards.

Friends confronted him first. But eventually it happened, " says Svedman. The invitations to the bachelor party did not materialize, not all would have anything to do with him.

It is painful. There is something to being sober. You have no friends anymore. They are scared away.

is at home
while the other is on the job
do not take the phone
at the end of summer
break my father
the door
(From the "When I drink")

Got kidney failure

Svedman says his parents were deeply concerned.

He remembers driving with his father to a avrusningsklinikk. It was august, it was so hot, they drove hour after hour through the forests.

In the suitcase he had packed a dark suit and a tie with little hearts. In case he dies.

He died not. But later he was told that he came to do it, if he doesn't quit drinking.

I got kidney failure due to a severe crack. My body could not. It was scary. I was only 30 years, and was told that I could die. I don't know if they said it was just to scare me.

HOME: Among the toys to his son in five years. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog Show more

First afterwards he realized what he had caused his parents, and all others who were happy in him, and go through.

Then he said I'm sorry.

I had not thought of what effect this had had on my loved ones, the insecurity they experienced. When I drank, I thought "this is my life, I'm an adult, why should they bother?". We also lived in different countries. Afterwards I realized that I have caused them a tremendous amount of pain. I have asked excuse. But building up trust takes many years.

Rotløshet

the main Character in the poetry collection doesn't move around, so Svedman even have done. He has moved so much that he can't say where he is from.

- I dropped the move in the book, of fortellertekniske reasons. But I have thought a lot about what the move and rotløsheten have had to say to me. But in itself there is no explanation. For me, it was my life, to move, to live in all these countries.

He can't even fully explain how he managed to stop with alcohol. It was as if it burned out. One day he stood on the bus, bakrusen the work, and he thought, no, this is all I no longer.

Since then he has cut entirely. Also it leads to a feeling of emptiness. And time. A lot of time. Which he uses to write. He has started a new project.

- Why I have not joined earlier, I do not know. But now I have beaten me to rest there. Much resolved itself when I quit drinking, a lot of what I worried for, has released, " says Svedman.

- Writing is a new type of obsession. But there are not a few who die of the writing.

I turn off the phone
locks me inside
with a plan to see on netflix
smoke cigarettes
get out
before skjelvingen have given
can't hold a glass
fill the sink with water
drink straight from the sink
for three days
I get me a spoon
soup
it's depressing
when I drink again
it is like to be saved

(From the "When I drink")

Wrote a book about his wife: - Instead of drinking myself to death, I wrote