Author: Johanne Elster Hanson

23. mars i år, samme dag som den engelske regjeringen innførte en mye etterspurt lockdown, fikk dramatikeren David Hare Covid-19. Noen dager i forveien hadde han sittet i et trangt klipperom sammen med regissøren og produsenten av hans nye TV-serie Roadkill. Regissør Michael Keillor hadde laget te, de hadde snakket tett til hverandre og spist kjeks fra samme … Continue reading Å få has på djevelen

When the German occupation of Norway ended in May 1945, those who had quietly profiteered from the miseries of war began the process of burying the previous five years. As King Haakon of Norway returned from his London exile and was greeted by jubilant, flag-waving crowds, it could seem as though no “good” Norwegian had … Continue reading Peace and lies

“Literature from Norway is characterized by good stories that don’t avoid discussing topics that are difficult and important,” Margit Walsø, director of Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), recently observed in an interview with Norwegian Arts. That potent blend of narrative and candor travels well: Norwegian has recently become the second most translated language after French. And, … Continue reading Thinking Independently: How Britain’s Small Presses Championed Norwegian Literature

With the onset of COVID-19, Norwegians found themselves suffering from a peculiar case of cabin fever. Cabin-owners across the nation were no longer allowed to stay at holiday houses outside their home municipality, something that led Norwegians closer to civil disobedience than they had ever ventured before. This obsessive attachment to our holiday homes is … Continue reading Pining for the fjords

In 2017, there were two Norwegian nominees for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. One was Vigdis Hjorth, whose controversial yet acclaimed novel Arv og Miljø (recently published as Will and Testament in a brilliant translation by Charlotte Barslund) had been the most written-about book of 2016. The other nominee, some people were surprised to hear, was Henrik Nor-Hansen for … Continue reading Terminal velocity

«Et vennskap kan være blant livets viktigste hendelser», skriver Graham Greene i memoarboken Ways of Escape, «og en fluktmetode, på samme måte som det å skrive eller reise, fra hverdagslige rutiner, følelsen av mislykkethet, frykten for fremtiden.» Boken, utgitt for 40 år siden, består av tidligere utgitte selvbiografiske artikler. Én av disse omhandler Nordahl Grieg, … Continue reading Skandinavere er fryktelig skandinaviske

Norway’s capital is often voted one of the ugliest cities in Europe, but it has seldom been more charming than in Lars Saabye Christensen’s novel Echoes of the City, the first installment in an ambitious trilogy tracing the lives of ordinary people in post-war Oslo. One of Norway’s most respected novelists, Saabye Christensen has managed … Continue reading Echoes of the city

In the spring of 2019, after the ‘caliphate’ established by ISIS had finally crumbled, children of jihadists and their niqab-clad mothers filled the refugee camp in Al-Hol, among them two Norwegian-Somali sisters already well-known to the Norwegian public. Their radicalisation had been carefully documented by Åsne Seierstad in Two Sisters, her award-winning 2016 work of reportage. … Continue reading Flee. Marry. Die.

In 2015, Lars Mytting’s nonfiction handbook Norwegian Wood ignited in the British a love of chopping and stacking wood; his follow-up novel, The Sixteen Trees of the Somme, cemented his reputation. The first instalment in a planned trilogy, The Bell in the Lake is set in 1880 on a barren Norwegian peninsula and weaves local legends with stories … Continue reading Tales from a Norwegian village

The 2020 International Dublin Literary Award would have announced its shortlist on 2 April, but has since been postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Among the many big names on the extensive longlist was Geir Gulliksen's novel Story of a Marriage, which caused a stir in Norway upon publication in 2015. Many viewed it … Continue reading Story of a marriage