Fiction

Double Life

Eivind Buene

Eivind Buene picks up musical threads from the novels Enmannsorkester and Allsang, and takes them further in a collection of literary essays. These texts listen, investigate and postulate, but most of all, they ask questions. What can music teach us about slowness? What stories can Glenn Gould's piano stool tell? Why do we talk about writing a song? What does a Norwegian novel sound like – and what is it about Gustav Mahler? ‘After reading this I feel much smarter and more sensitive.’ KLASSEKAMPEN ‘Thoughtful and well-written novel about music and literature, and the relationship between them.’ STAVANGER AFTENBLAD ‘... and I find myself hoping that Buene will be invited to lecture on music in Norwegian schools.’ P2

Doomsday

Kjersti Wøien Håland

Judgement Day (Dommedøgn) is a disaster novel about Berg, a little village on the west coast of Norway where the mountains tower over the village and the fjord stretches deep beneath them. A village whose continued existence has been secured all these years because of a factory which has now closed. A place where the rational and productive human being is flanked by a powerful and irrational nature which would increasingly have its own way. What will happen to them when the structures they have spent their entire lives building, fall? We follow five characters: the prophetic and strange teenager Linn is sure that something bad is going to happen. She is tormented by bullies, but awaits a greater catastrophe. Her only friend in the world is Fiver, her rabbit, who she thinks is psychic. Ingrid is the mayor trying desperately to attract new businesses to the town with help from national reorganisation, but she is constantly exploited. Gard, a misanthropist and recently unemployed drug addict who does everything he can to disturb the standstill. Care nurse Cecilie who makes friends with an elderly patient and helps her to die, but becomes so disturbed by this act that she leaves the body where it is and observes the slow process of decay. Lars, a naïve and self-appointed inventor who is working with a machine that will bring new business to the disillusioned village, a machine which packs waste into squares. All of them are trying to give meaning to an existence which seems to have lost it, but from the mountain and out over the fjord hangs a rock which constantly threatens to fall into the water. ‘Håland shows insight into the dynamics of the local community. She presents oblique reflections from both the town hall and pub with linguistic freshness. ... For those of us who fear or are fascinated by catastrophe, Dommedøgn is a somewhat erratic but entertaining literary supplement.’ KLASSEKAMPEN ‘Pulse racing: adrenaline pumps throughout this postmodern portrait that Kjersti Wøien Håland has painted of a village in a crisis. ... Kjesti Wøien Håland has a poetic streak that is all her own, and is without a doubt a literary talent in full development.’ DAG OG TID ‘Kjersti Wøien Håland has written an illustrious novel about a village on its deathbed.’ Nomination jury for the Young Critics’ Prize

Elsi Lund

Bjørg Vik

In the third book in the series about Elsi Lund, she has reached womanhood. We follow Elsi through the mid-1950s: from graduation and domestic science college to engagement, break-up, and mental collapse, before she finds the key to her own life and her own voice at the Journalism Academy. With warmth, precision, and sensuality, Vik portrays the transition from youth to adulthood in a time marked by conventions and narrow frameworks for how women were expected to live their lives. The Elsi Lund trilogy today stands as a major work of Norwegian post-war literature and demonstrates why Bjørg Vik is considered one of our most central authors.

Aestethic Bliss

Stig Sæterbakken

Stig Sæterbakken was a sharp essayist and wrote essays through most of his authorship. His first collection Aesthetic Bliss (Estetisk salighet) from 1994 was written over a five year period and relates to "The Aesthetic Dimension" within different expressions of art, such as literature, film, painting and sculpting. "He is one of the most gifted essayists of Norway."MORGENBLADET"Sæterbakkens essays give us at least fifteen reasons to use art."ARBEIDERBLADET

A Norwegian House

Vigdis Hjorth

A Norwegian log cabin plays one of the main roles in Vigdis Hjorth's new novel. What does it mean to own a house or land, to look after it and rent it out? Alma is a divorced, middle-aged textile artist who makes standards for marching bands and trade unions for a living, and who, for that reason, rents an apartment to a Polish family. One day, Alma is given an assignment requiring empathy and creativity: to make a carpet which will be displayed as part of an exhibition for the anniversary of the constitution and which should focus on the 100th anniversary of women being given the right to vote. Alma is flattered and accepts, but soon wonders if she's in over her head. Where should she begin? When, at the same time, she enters into a conflict with her Polish tenants, Alma's perception of herself as a good Norwegian feminist is challenged and she finds that her very existence is on shaky ground. A house in Norway is a novel about the joy of creating and gaining recognition and the despair in realising that this recognition is difficult to translate to reality. So is it really worth it? ‘... a great novel that is plausible and realistic, but which has a metaphoric potential that the author cleverly never points out.’ DAG OG TID ‘Vigdis Hjorth has never been afraid of the banal or clichéd. She also has an uncanny ability to write through the hackneyed and stereotypical to something more painfully existential. This is one of the reasons that I am becoming more and more appreciative of her authorship. ... An important book about the dilemmas facing us all, about the relationship between what is familiar and strange and about Norwegian self-awareness.’ AFTENPOSTEN ‘Just as profound, existential and original as always. ... As always when I read Hjorth, it strikes me how deeply she thinks. And how elegant and original she is in her formulation of these thoughts.’ DAGBLADET ‘I don’t know how she does it, but I must say I’m impressed. Vigdis Hjorth always has her finger on the pulse of Norwegian society. ... There is a fire in everything she writes – a fire that Alma in this novel thinks must smoulder in young souls – and I think that Vigdis Hjorth gets older and wiser and younger and more passionate with every book she writes.’ NRK.no ‘A great book about the distance between ideals and everyday challenges.’ TRØNDER-AVISA ‘Hjorth unmasks us again, this time in a novel about inequality in the world’s richest country. Pressing questions and a prism of today’s Norway.’ KLASSEKAMPEN

THIS IS GOODBYE TO NOVELS

Ingvar Ambjørnsen

On the evening of 17 June 2010, Ingvar Ambjørnsen makes a snap decision to stop writing novels. It just comes to him. He's been writing, just like always. He's written the first forty pages of Brev til en uvenn, and he's not dissatisfied with what he's written. He reads it through and thinks it's good. He can do this. He's in control. But then, his thoughts turn on him: this is no good. He can't keep on doing this. He doesn't believe in himself anymore. Maybe he never has. And it's not the first time he's had this thought this spring or summer. It's come to him on a regular basis, and now, apparently, it's here to stay. But giving up being a novelist is a serious decision. Because he is a novelist. What else could he do? In Farvel til romanen, we follow Ingvar Ambjørnsen through a dramatic June day which threatens to turn his life upside down.

FIAT AND GRANDMA AND THE WHITE LION

Iben Sandemose

Fiat and Grandma are going to the lion forest. They have lion costumes on and lion food in a bag. Then they see a white lion. ’We need to get Granddad,’ whispers Fiat. ’He loves lions.’ But when they come home, Granddad is fast asleep in his favouritechair. They try to wake him, but they can’t, and he is very cold. Fiat gets a blanket. It doesn’t help. ’Is Granddad dead?’ Fiat asks. ’Yes,’ says Grandma, crying. Fiat and Grandma both have their own way of grieving. They ride lions, find a lovely yellow coffin, and Fiat writes a letter to Granddad which she puts under his jumper. No one other than Iben Sandemose could write such a nontraditional book about death. The book is sad, funny, playful and clever. Sandemose’s illustrations are as colourful and imaginative as ever. A great book to read for those who have lost someone they love and for those who are about to lose someone. Fiat og Farmor is an exciting and unique series for small children. Fiat og Farmor og den hvite løven is the seventh book in the series. The books have been translated into several languages.

Frost

Roy Jacobsen

In this novel Roy Jacobsen takes us back to one of the most dramatic periods in Scandinavian history. FROST is the adventurous tale about the Icelandic boy Gest, born in the year of 993, who at the age of just thirteen years old becomes an outlaw when he avenges the murder of his father by killing one of the most powerful chiefs of Iceland. With his companion, the wildling Teitr, he flees Iceland and makes it to Norway. There he walks on foot from Trondheim to Hålogaland and further south. He is cold, he is going nowhere, and he will kill again. ´Frost is a great novel and a riveting adventure. At the same time.´AFTENPOSTEN ´Roy Jacobsen is a storyteller touched by God. Frost is a well filled, well written and fascinating saga novel.´DAGBLADET ´Frost is an impressive parade of a novel (...) As a whole: A riveting triathlon of a novel. Here we meet a storyteller who knows what he is doing. He has extensive knowledge about Nordic literature and let himself be inspired by the sagas without becoming a predictable imitator.´STAVANGER AFTENBLAD ´Frost is a through and through modern novel exactly because of its historic slant, drawing a precise curve through todays conflict-areas, both outwards and as an inner journey.´BERGENS TIDENDE

Mistletoe

Elisabeth Hammer / Kjetil Nystuen

Hellfire

Karin Fossum

A rusty old caravan sits in a forest grove. The door is open and a four or five year old child lies inside. The child's body has been chopped into pieces and is nearly drained of blood. An adult woman, presumably the child's mother, lies on a sofa, also stabbed to death.This is brutal even for Konrad Sejer. The deceased are Connie, who works as home help for the elderly, and Simon, her son. There are many characters in this book, but the central figures are Connie and Simon as well as Mamma Mass and her 21-yearold son Eddie. Both are single mothers not in contact with the fathers of their children. As Connie works as home help, we also encounter many other people and their destinies in the homes she visits. The author switches deftly between chapters set in 2004 and chapters set in 2005, or rather, before and after the murders. This increases the tension, and the reader is able to participate in solving the mystery of who the killer is. There are many clues leading in different directions. Helvetesilden deals with topics such as poverty in a wealthy Norway, the situation of the elderly and the absence of a father. But above all it makes for very exciting reading. ‘Helvetesilden is one of Karin Fossum’s best crime stories. … In her writing, Fossum expertly captures the nuances of everyday life and the way in which living people struggle to make sense of life. She does it with a subdued tone and an unwavering dedication to her characters. … In Helvetesilden, the story approaches a point which is heartbreaking rather than thrilling. This novel shows that Karin Fossum is in a class of her own as a crime writer.’DAGSAVISEN ‘Here she delivers what must be one of her most penetrating and moving novels. An author at the height of her creative ability. … The composition is almost a stroke of genius in itself, as for a long time we are at a complete loss as to how Fossum intends to fuse the parallel storylines. … The way she does it demonstrates both her mastery of her trade and her formidable ability to portray tormented minds without diminishing them through inconsequential platitudes about insanity and other dissociative diagnoses.’AFTENPOSTEN ‘The opening scene showcases Fossum at her best – the dank camper van, the heat and the brutal murders. The detailed, subdued tone; the grotesque in the middle of the everyday.’DAGBLADET ‘A really high-grade crime novel should delve deep into human motivation, both that of the main characters and the supporting characters, so that the hero and antagonist are not merely presented in black and white. And not least, the language should be functional, precise and efficient. There are not many people who write like this within the extensive crime genre. Karin Fossum is one of few who can. She writes high-quality crime of the best, international standard. She has now focused her attention on a novel which, in my opinion, has to be one of her very best. It is called Helvetesilden. So disturbing, riveting and painful that you can’t help but be drawn in.’TØNSBERG BLAD ‘And just like Ibsen, Fossum’s use of language is beautiful - precise, expertly calling to mind images without ever employing a single superfluous word… it is a sheer joy to reunite with old companions Sejer and Skarre ... Their best attributes are put to the test, and yet again they pass with flying colours. The same can be said for Karin Fossum.’DRAMMENS TIDENDE ‘Intricate and surprising.’VARDEN‘Karin Fossum is the most literary of the Norwegian crime writers ... The novel is skilfully composed, and several of the characters from Helvetesilden will remain with the reader long after the final page has been turned.’ADRESSEAVISEN‘Karin Fossum has mastered the art of describing the exhausting everyday lives of individuals. We come to understand how a monstrous double-murder can occur, and Fossum writes with a wonderful and affectionate eye for detail and the bonds that connect people.’OPPLAND ARBEIDERBLAD‘It is a joy to observe the weaving together of the three parallel stories contained within the novel - the author is in her element in this respect. The way in which she describes the crime and that which is hidden in the shadow of madness reveals an empathetic logic from which many members of society can learn a great deal. Karin Fossum is truly a writer unlike all others.’TRØNDER-AVISA‘The tight focus on the protagonists and the tempting darkness lurking beneath the surface makes this no typical tale of murder and police investigation. Instead, this is a story of human destiny, buried history and painful feelings that grip the reader and refuse to let go until long after the book has ended.’TELEMARKSAVISA‘Helvetesilden is a strong sequel to Fossum’s earlier psychological novels - glittering prose situated within a framework that both fascinates and inspires the reader.’GJENGANGEREN‘Yet again, Karin Fossum delivers an impressive piece of work - one would expect no less...’LO-MEDIA

The Gates of Hell

Hilde Lindset

Thematically, Helvetesporten looks at Rodin's sculpture of the same name. In these three short stories we meet artists who are at a crucial point in their lives, both artistically and in their interpersonal relationships. In one of the stories we meet Rodin himself, who takes in a young Rainer Maria Rilke to assist him in his work with the sculpture. Hilde Lindset's second book is a powerful collection of short stories!