Bjørn Hatterud has written about his old tower block, and how an area in Oslo has changed through thirteen years. – The book is about power and the divide between high and low status, he says.

Tore Renberg tries to go back in time to grasp why humans do as they do. – Is this possible? I mean, travel all the way back to the 17th century? No. Or yes! The magic of literature, to speak in grand words, exists. If it didn’t, I would have never become a reader in the first place, and consequently, never an author, he says.

In ‘Exctinction’ Nikolaj Frobenius tells the story of Jonathan, who is paralyzed with sorrow after his son died in an arson attack. – The novel raises questions about whether violence is sometimes the only – and just – solution, he says.

Pedro Carmona-Alvarez has always known he wanted to write this book, he just didn’t know how. This changed when he saw an eight year old girl watching the suffering body of Jesus on the cross. – The mutilated body and the child’s eyes, gave me the chance to enter the story, he says.

Monica Isakstuen has written about what it means, and if it is even possible, to meet your own children where they are. – To think if it was possible to have the same age as one’s own children, if so only for a moment. I am deeply fascinated by (and feel a fear of!) the fact that we as humans are so locked into our age and the role it contains right now, she says.

Brit Bildøen writes about a familty gathering that doesn’t quite go as planned. In fact, it goes terribly wrong. – I think it is interesting to put my characters through unexpected things, or to put pressure on them and see what happens, she says.

With the hopes of saving the family house that’s about to fall apart, the main character in Girls in Trees goes back to the island where the family is from. – In a way, we are all vague echoes of our earlier generations. We carry a heritage of different tools to handle what comes our way, Heidi Mittun-Kjos says.

Lotta Elstad has written a feminist novel set in Oslo hundred years ago. – This novel suits best for those who can handle reading about women that don’t act exactly as they should – and hopefully that is many, she says.

Simon Stranger has written about a murder case from real life, which is closely connected to his own family. – This book is for everyone who enjoys novels of the more serious kind, and especially those who are interested in the second world war, he says.

Enjoy a weekly poem by authors from Norway, throughout the year.

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Jon Fosse with the Nobel Prize in Literature 2023!

Katarzyna Tunkiel has worked with literary translation for 15 years, and translated over 70 books from Norwegian to Polish, mainly fiction and children’s literature. Get to know October’s Translator of the Month!