"The Calf" by Leif Høghaug & David M. Smith

"The Calf" by Leif Høghaug & David M. Smith

From Three Percent Podcast by Open Letter Books

December 29, 2025 · 1h 7m

About this episode

Leif Høghaug and David M. Smith discuss their unique book 'The Calf' and its linguistic influences.

Leif Høghaug (who is currently translating Finnegans Wake into Norwegian) and David M. Smith join Chad and Kyle Semmel to talk about The Calf , one of the strangest books to come out in 2025. They provide curious readers with some guideposts to approaching this book, talk about influences and specific Norwegian dialects, David’s choice to write this in the Appalachian dialect his dad speaks, deciding to “write like an idiot” and enjoy the play and music of language, and much more. If you’re at all curious about this unique book, this episode may well convince you to pick up a copy. This episode’s music is “Idiot Box” by Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review ( Apple , Spotify ) and Mining the Dalkey Archive ( Apple , Spotify ) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

People in this episode

Hosts: Chad Semmel, Kyle Semmel

Guests: Leif Høghaug, David M. Smith

Topics covered

  • translation
  • literature
  • Norwegian dialects
  • Appalachian dialect
  • language play
  • book discussion

Keywords

  • The Calf
  • Leif Høghaug
  • David M. Smith
  • translation
  • Norwegian dialect
  • Appalachian dialect
  • language

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Calf, Finnegans Wake

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