Fed pickled herring and gjetost (brown cheese) as a toddler, Eric Dregni grew up in Norway’s colony in America: Minnesota. As the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing, Dregni lived in Trondheim, where he survived a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, took the “meat bus” to Sweden for cheap salami with a busload of knitting pensioners, and discovered his great-grandfather’s house in the Lusterfjord only to find out it had been crushed by a boulder then swept away by a river. "In Cod We Trust" is a heartwarming memoir about Dregni’s year-long experiment in Norway, including discoveries about his family history, culture clash, and his son’s birth thanks to the generous Norwegian healthcare system.

Eric Dregni is a freelance writer and an assistant professor of English and Journalism at Concordia University in St. Paul. He lives in Minneapolis.