Each year, four Norwegian books are nominated in four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Books and Open Category: Non-Fiction for children. The winners will be announced 24th of November.

Fiction

Ingeborg Arvola – The Knife in the Fire

Ingeborg Arvola has been awarded several prizes since her debut in 1999. However, her latest novel also marks her commercial breakthrough in Norway and abroad. The Knife in the Fire is a riveting historical novel set in 1865, and is based on the author’s own great-great grandmother Brita Caisa who immigrates to Northern Norway from Finland with her two sons. In Brita Caisa’s compelling voice, both sensuous and literary, this novel tells stories of  work and love, strong communities, carefree erotica, the individual and the community. The Knife in the fire is the first book in a trilogy.

Jury’s statement: The novel balances the rough and hard in nature and life and the tender and gentle in the love between Brita and Mikkel. Both the nature and the romantic relationship is described with an intensity that pulls the reader into the story, to the people and the landscape.

Sample translation and synopsis available.

Rights sold: Denmark (Gutkind, 3-book deal, pre-empt), Sweden (Albert Bonnier, pre-empt), Finland (Gummerus, 3-book deal, pre-empt), France (Éditions Paulsen, 3-book-deal, auction), The Netherlands (Bezige Bij, 3-book deal, four-way bidding), The Faroe Islands (Spròtin)

Vigdis Hjorth – Fifteen Years

Following her international successes with Will and Testament and Is Mother Dead, Vigdis Hjorth’s latest novel Fifteen Years is of the same incredible, literary quality that we’ve come to expect from one of our most outstanding contemporary writers. In Fifteen Years, Paula stands before her first communion ceremony, a divide between childhood and adulthood. Here she discovers a secret that begins to unravel the safety she has felt in her family. Why is her mother lying about all of them in the letters to her Grandmother, and what does that mean? Fifteen Years is a stunning and insightful book about one of the most important events in a human’s life – becoming an adult and growing independent, even when it hurts others.

Jury’s statement: The most apparent of Vigdis Hjorth’s talents in her early authorship was the ability to describe the struggles in a young woman’s way to independence. That talent is further developed here … [Hjorth] is stylistically surefooted, the composition is perfectly executed, and this is a main character and an environment that lives strongly and for a long time in the reader.

Sample translation and synopsis available.

Rights sold: Denmark (Turbine), Sweden (Natur & Kultur), Italy (Fazi), Hungary (Polar)

Children’s Books

Bjørn F. Rørvik og Per Dybvig – Grisaldo

Rørvik-Dybvig’s dynamic duo from the Fox and the Piglet series has been a sensational success, and they are now up to an astounding 14 books in total. Grisaldo stands out from the ranks, as it takes the leap from picture book to read-aloud book. But worry not, it is just as silly and fun as we except from Rørvik and Dybvig! Fox and Piglet are playing football in Foxhaven, but by the time the score is 5-0, Pigaldo has had enough of Bertil Fox and his dribbling and scoring and boastful comments. He’s done, and threatens to leave in the middle of the match!

Jury’s statement: Grisaldo is a collaboration that shows how a picture book can spark the joy of reading, the motivation to explore the correlation between text and illustration, and room for play. … The book creates joy of reading out loud, and can sustain multiple rereads both in a group and alone.

Rights sold: Poland (Druganoga)

Non-Fiction Children’s Books

Peder Inge Knutsen Samdal — More than a club

More Than a Club is a book for anyone who loves football and wants to understand how important football is in societies all over the world. It introduces 11 clubs that are larger than life, clubs that are ‘more than a club’. Football is more than what happens on the pitch, and the players play for more than themselves. Lyon plays for equality, the Norwegian club Odd plays for the environment, and the Argentinian club Boca Juniors also plays a little for the mafia. More Than a Club dives into what’s behind the football.

Jury’s statement: … Peder Samdal invites [in More than a Club] to critical thinking about football, politics and society, and not to mention the supporters’s important function. … Football is the world’s most powerful sport with over 3.5 million supporters, and in this book it is precisely the importance of the supporters that Samdal use to start the discussion on ethical and social-critical questions.

Non-Fiction

Trygve Riiser Gundersen – Haugianerne: The Spirit and the Machine

Haugianerne was published to unanimous critical acclaim, with the reviewers giving Riiser Gundersen full score on the ratings and named the novel a ‘masterpiece’, ‘grand and impressive’ and an ‘outstanding piece of storytelling’. The book dives into the Haugean movement and the leader, preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge, who are are revered as established heroes in Norwegian history. In 1804 everything looked different. Trygve Riiser Gundersen takes us back to the era of the revival. Why did the state and the officials react to the religious revival with fear? And where did the fear disappear? The result is a new interpretation of one of the most important phenomena in Norwegian history. But also, an entirely new image of Norway before 1814 – a society characterized by turmoil, oppression, change and resistance.