Author: Johanne Elster Hanson

Peer Gynt er kanskje det av Ibsens stykker som er vanskeligst å sette opp i utlandet, men David Hares skotske nytolkning gjør tittelkarakterens selvopptatthet brennaktuell Ibsen settes opp som aldri før i London, i stadige nye former og variasjoner. Bare det siste året har det vært et forsøk på å skape #metoo-debatt i Vildanden, en … Continue reading Trolls all love to party – Peter Gynt ved National Theatre London

After Knausgård, Norwegian readers thought we were used to the dramatic repercussions brought on by the thinly veiled autobiographical novel. Then, in 2016, Vigdis Hjorth’s Arv og Miljø, now translated as Will and Testament, detonated like a bomb. The book became deeply controversial, not so much because of its content as the debate it sparked. … Continue reading Nature or nurture? Both are examined thoroughly in Vigdis Hjorth’s best novel to date

None other than Karl Ove Knausgård, Norway’s greatest literary export since Ibsen, has provided the endorsement quote on the reissued English edition of Tarjei Vesaas’s The Birds, stating that it is ‘the best Norwegian novel ever.’ Vesaas (1897-1970) is still considered one of the country’s most important writers, and is now deservedly being published in … Continue reading A Norwegian masterpiece weighed down by its English translation

It feels timely for Norwegian historian and biographer Ivo de Figueiredo’s postcolonial family chronicle to be published in English on the eve of Brexit. A Stranger at My Table is de Figueiredo’s autobiographical account of a family history that spans two centuries and four continents, and the result is an ambitious amalgam; an exploration of … Continue reading Fathers and sons