Mission to Oslo is a rollicking tale of the true adventures of President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway: Tom Loftus, grandson of Norwegian immigrants and former Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly.

Told with wit and wry humor, the memoir covers 1993 to 1998, the momentous years of the first Clinton administration. It was a time of historic change after the end of the Cold War, with policies adopted that are still debated today: the building of relations with a fledgling Russian democracy, the expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe and the Baltics, and the Norwegian-brokered Oslo Accords that laid the groundwork for a path to peace in the Mideast.

Loftus is a gifted storyteller, and the job of an American ambassador comes to vibrant life. Everything from traveling with the King and the Queen to dodging tanks on a winter road in Russia. Food, wine, and entertaining in Oslo’s spectacular Ambassador’s Residence. It is all there.