Fiction: Repetition by Vigdis Hjorth

Does Vigdis Hjorth just get better and better? That certainly seems to be the case, as critics speculate if Repetition is her best novel yet. Since her last nomination for the Brage prize, just last year for Fifteen years, Hjorth has also been longlisted for the Interntional Booker Prize, marking her as one of our most important contemporary writers, not only in Norway, but globally. In Repetition, we meet a a grown woman looking back at her youth. The view the grown woman offers her younger self, is tender and beautiful. It’s about being kissed for the first time, the incredibly clumsy, funny, and painful act of doing it for the first time, it’s about feeling the intoxication spread throughout your body at a party with some boys in a terraced house, about running through the woods to prepare for a marathon, about feeling a huge hunger and thirst in your young life. All while her mother watches over the young girl like a hawk, her father keeps away and holds a low profile. The father’s distance is notable, the mother’s close watch involves control that is normally unheard of. Because, as the novel reveals on its first page, there is a big and dangerous secret in their house.

Jury's statement: «Vigdis Hjorth has always been good at writing the hope, despair and loneliness of teenage girls, and to describe how powerless one can feel, how clumsy one can feel. 

This is a deep dive into the darkest and scariest part of Hjorth's literary project, it's a novel about fundamental outsiderness, about a broken family, about a girl who knows something is wrong, but not what and not why.»

Extensive sample translation and synopsis available

Rights sold to: Denmark (Turbine), Finland (Schildts & Söderströms), Hungary (Polar Egyesület), Italy (Fazi Editore), Sweden (Natur & Kultur)

Non-fiction: Race: A History of Science by Jon Røyne Kyllingstad

For more than a decade, historian Jon Røyne Kyllingstad has studied how the concept of race has been used in the history of science, from the 1600s until today. The idea that some races have been elevated above others has been rooted in all parts of academia, and affected research within anthropology, history, and medicine. Some of our foremost researchers have allowed themselves to use a scientific “reasoning” for systematic discrimination, and in this interesting as well as frightening work parts of our academic history which so far has been forgotten or ignored is put to the light in a systemic manner.

Jury's statement: «Kyllingstad shows in a convincing manner how race theory has affected both the history of science, and national and international society. The book is a chronologcal presentation of the concept of race in different scientific disciplines from the 1600s until present time, without isolating the history of science from society. 

The book is thorough, well-written and explanatory, and contains good, albeit shocking, illustrations that support Kyllingstad's argument about the central role of racial thinking in science and the worldview.»

Non-fiction for children: How to talk about death by Anna Fiske

Death is up next in Anna Fiske’s successful How-to series. Death is a topic that children are curious about, and which adults may find difficult to discuss. What actually happens with the body when you die? What’s a funeral? And why do we even have to die?

Anna Fiske has an incredibly unique form of communicating, and in How to Talk About Death she speaks to the children at their level taking them seriously, while also managing to write a heart-warming, inclusive and at times even funny book about death. A perfect conversation starter for anyone who has questions about death, or who knows someone who’s passed away.

Jury's statement: «In Fiske's rich communication there is always room for play. So there is in this book. Led by verbal clarifications, the naive and detailed illustrations offer humorous comments on life's big question. Because death is part of life, even if it is difficult to talk about it. What is absolutely certain is that this book will be a little easier, both for young and old.»

Full English PDF available

Rights sold to: Denmark (Gyldendal), Germany (Carl Hanser), China (Beijing Sunshine Meda), Sweden (Natur & Kultur), Czech Republic (Cesta domu)

Non-fiction for children: Close up: Life under water by Jannicke Wiik-Nielsen, Dag O. Hessen og Line Renslebråten

See life under water with completely new eyes in this non-fiction book for the whole family! See pictures like you've never seen before - look a tadpole in the eyes, or take a look at their teeth. The unique images are magnified up to 15,000 times through a special technique. Here you will learn how jellyfish poop, and how crabs talk to each other. If you dare, get close and familiar with their claws! Did you know that crabs both smell and taste with their claws? Or that there are crabs who can climb trees? Or that some shrimp actually brush fish teeth? Incredibly, tiny zooplankton found in the North Sea, no bigger than a grain of rice, can form swarms so large they can be seen from space. And did you know that there are animals without heads? They are not as scary as you might think: Starfish are one of them. You've probably seen them, but hardly as close up as you can here... 

An exciting and educational book about an important and contemporary topic. A fact book that takes children's curiosity seriously.

Jury's statement: «Children often have a natural curiosity for bugs, and many are fascinated by crabs and tadpoles. This book takes this interest in nature seriously, and shares knowledge in a visual and inviting manner. Close up: Life under water is a book the reader can spend a long time looking through. The photographies, which in themselves offer much teaching, are led by fact-oriented text that supply more in-depth informaiton on the specific creature's habitat and life.»

Rights sold to: Denmark (Straarup & co)