Ellen Sofie Lauritzen - Selected Title Author
We are happy to present our selected title author Ellen Sofie Lauritzen. She has written Men Falling (original title: Menn som faller). The book is one of NORLA’s Selected Titles of the spring 2025.
What is your book about?
We meet Selna Bru on the morning of her 40th birthday, having lost everything: her boyfriend, her friends, and her job as a journalist. At almost the exact same time, the well-known author RT Remi collapses and dies on a street in Oslo. Remi was accused of drugging and assaulting several women in a backroom of “The Cave,” the literary club he ran. He was charged and convicted but was later acquitted.
Justice prevailed in the end, Selna thinks, seeing his death as a birthday gift from above. After all, it was his fault she hit rock bottom. Shortly after, she receives a call from a legendary editor who wants her to write a true crime book about Remi and his alleged misdeeds. Though she isn’t much of an investigative journalist, Selna knows she has to say yes; this is her chance to get revenge on Remi, reclaim her good name, and hopefully become a success. However, it soon becomes clear that RT Remi wasn’t the man everyone thought he was—and Selna isn’t as innocent as she seems.
What sets your book apart from other books within the same genre?
I wanted to write a slightly different kind of thriller—one that’s about much more than just solving a crime. This isn’t your classic “whodunnit.” The book is both a story about power abuse in the cultural industry before and after #metoo and an existential exploration of being a single, childless woman entering her 40s. The protagonist is someone readers can sympathize with, yet she is also deeply flawed. She crosses ethical lines, and her motivations are questionable. I want the book to provoke something in the reader: to make you curious, slightly uncomfortable, maybe even angry—but I also want to make you laugh. Even though the themes are dark, I try to write with a bit of oomph and humor. I poke fun at the sometimes overly self-important crime genre and at the industries I depict—especially media and publishing.
Read more
See full presentation of the book here
Read more about the author here
See all NORLA’s Selected Titles for the spring 2025 here
