Reading Norway: Norwegian Summer Reading Recommendations
This summer, NORLA has invited readers on a literary journey through Norway. In our Reading Norway series, we have highlighted Norwegian books that take us to places, landscapes, and lived experiences that shape Norwegian literature in different ways and that have also found readers far beyond Norway’s borders.
The books revolve around four themes: the sea, the cabin, family, and loneliness. From windswept island communities and life along the coast to cabin life, from close family relationships to people who withdraw from others, the books reveal very different sides of Norway and contemporary Norwegian literature.
For Norway, the sea is a source of livelihood, a means of travel and transport, and a force of nature and it has also left a deep imprint on Norwegian literature. In these four books, we encounter the sea from very different perspectives: as part of everyday life on a small island, as a source of knowledge and adventure, as part of a fisherman’s existential landscape, and as the setting for an increasingly unsettling refuge.
Roy Jacobsen: De usynlige / The Unseen
On the small island of Barrøy off the Helgeland coast, a family lives on nature’s terms, with the sea, the weather, and the seasons woven into everyday life. De usynlige, the first book about Ingrid Barrøy and her family, became Roy Jacobsen’s major international success and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017.
The English edition, The Unseen, was translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw and published by MacLehose Press / Quercus.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in around 30 territories, and the Barrøy series has been translated into 28 languages.
Morten A. Strøksnes: Havboka / Shark Drunk
Morten A. Strøksnes and his friend Hugo Aasjord set out from Lofoten in a small boat in search of the mysterious Greenland shark. The hunt becomes the starting point for a fascinating journey through natural science, history, mythology, and stories of the sea.
The English edition, Shark Drunk, was translated by Tiina Nunnally and published by Alfred A. Knopf in the US and Jonathan Cape in the UK.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in 26 markets, including the US, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, and South Korea.
Jon Fosse: Morgon og kveld / Morning and Evening
Johannes is a fisherman, and the sea is an integral part of his life. In Morgon og kveld, Jon Fosse allows this concrete life on the coast to open onto the great questions of birth and death, love, and what lies beyond.
The English edition, Morning and Evening, was translated by Damion Searls and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in more than 30 languages and markets. Jon Fosse’s work has been translated into more than 50 languages.
Agnes Ravatn: Fugletribunalet / The Bird Tribunal
Following a public scandal, Allis Hagtorn seeks refuge with a stranger by a remote fjord. But the peace and isolation she longs for gradually develop into something far more unsettling.
The English edition, The Bird Tribunal, was translated by Rosie Hedger and published by Orenda Books.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in 21 countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
The cabin holds a special place in the Norwegian idea of the good life: a place for nature, tranquillity, and a break from everyday life. But life away from the city can also bring family conflicts, unsettling encounters with Norwegian outdoor life and memories that are impossible to escape.
Vigdis Hjorth: Arv og miljø / Will and Testament
Two family cabins on the Hvaler islands become the starting point for an inheritance dispute between four adult siblings. But the conflict soon comes to involve much more than property: for Bergljot, it raises questions about childhood, trauma, and who gets to define the family’s history.
The English edition, Will and Testament, was translated by Charlotte Barslund and published by Verso Books.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in more than 30 countries and markets.
Are Kalvø: Hyttebok frå helvete / The Hiking Book from Hell
Why do all Norwegians suddenly want to head for the mountains? When his friends swap the pub for hiking and cabin life, Are Kalvø decides to find out what he has been missing. The result is a humorous and self-deprecating exploration of the Norwegian love of nature and outdoor life.
The English edition, The Hiking Book from Hell, was translated by Lucy Moffatt and published by Greystone Books.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in 13 international markets, including the UK/World English, Germany, France, Italy, and South Korea.
Per Petterson: Ut og stjæle hester / Out Stealing Horses
When 67-year-old Trond retreats to a remote place in Eastern Norway, a chance encounter brings back memories of a pivotal summer he spent with his father at the age of fifteen. In Petterson’s novel, nature becomes both a place of refuge and a place of confrontation with the past.
The English edition, Out Stealing Horses, was translated by Anne Born and published by Graywolf Press in the US and Harvill Secker in the UK.
Internationally: The novel has been translated into more than 50 languages.
Family is where we come from and the relationships we may never entirely escape. In these five books, we encounter family from very different perspectives: adult children forced to see their parents anew, memories of a famous father, sisters trying to hold a family together – and two books that go all the way back to the beginning and ask how children actually come into being.
Helga Flatland: En moderne familie / A Modern Family
When Liv, Ellen, and Håkon’s parents announce that they are divorcing after forty years of marriage, the whole family is shaken. The three adult siblings are forced to reconsider their relationships with their parents, with one another, and the story they have told themselves about their own childhood.
The English edition, A Modern Family, was translated by Rosie Hedger and published by Orenda Books.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in 15 languages and markets, including World English, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Sweden.
Linn Ullmann: De urolige / Unquiet
Taking conversations between a daughter and her ageing father as its starting point, Linn Ullmann explores childhood, family, memory, and loss. De urolige moves between the daughter’s summers with her father on Fårö and her attempts as an adult to understand – and put into words – her memories of her parents.
The English edition, Unquiet, was translated by Thilo Reinhard and published by W. W. Norton in the US.
Internationally: The available rights information shows sales in around 30 languages and markets, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, South Korea, and Sweden. Linn Ullmann’s books have been published in 33 languages.
Ingvild H. Rishøi: Stargate. En julefortelling / Brightly Shining
Ten-year-old Ronja lives in Oslo with her older sister Melissa and a father who drinks too much. When he loses his job selling Christmas trees, the girls themselves try to hold both their family and their dream of Christmas together. A dark yet hopeful story about sisterly love, care, and children’s loyalty.
The English edition, Brightly Shining, was translated by Caroline Waight and published by Grove Atlantic in the US and Grove Press in the UK.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in around 30 languages and markets, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden.
Anna Fiske: Hvordan lager man en baby? / How Do You Make a Baby?
How does a family actually come into being? With humour, warmth, and colourful illustrations, Anna Fiske gives children concrete answers about how babies are made: from conception and pregnancy to birth, while also showing that there are different ways of having children and being a family.
The English edition, How Do You Make a Baby?, was translated by Don Bartlett and published by Gecko Press.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in 17 international markets, including Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and New Zealand.
Anna Blix: 40 uker / 40 Weeks
Anna Blix takes us even further into the question of how new life – and new families – come into being. Taking her own pregnancy as a starting point, the biologist compares the 40 weeks of human pregnancy with the astonishing ways in which 81 other species reproduce.
The English edition, 40 Weeks: What Humans and 81 Other Species Expect When They’re Expecting, was translated by Nichola Smalley and published by MacLehose Press.
Internationally: Rights have so far been sold in China, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, South Korea, and the UK.
What does it really mean to be lonely? Is being alone always a negative thing? These three books approach loneliness in very different ways: through a child’s grief and isolation, as a fundamental human and philosophical question, and as a way of life that can also offer freedom and happiness.
Tarjei Vesaas: Is-slottet / The Ice Palace
Siss and Unn are two eleven-year-old girls who feel strongly drawn to one another. When Unn disappears into the frozen waterfall, Siss is left behind with grief and loneliness. The Ice Palace is a poetic novel about friendship, loss, and the feeling of being an outsider in the world. The novel won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1964.
The English edition, The Ice Palace, was translated by Elizabeth Rokkan and published as a Penguin Modern Classic.
Internationally: Tarjei Vesaas’s novels have been translated into 28 languages, and The Ice Palace continues to find new readers internationally.
Lars Fr. H. Svendsen: Ensomhetens filosofi / A Philosophy of Loneliness
Is loneliness primarily a problem, or do we also need to be alone? Lars Fr. H. Svendsen examines loneliness as a universal human experience, exploring both its negative and positive aspects through philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences.
The English edition, A Philosophy of Loneliness, was translated by Kerri Pierce and published by Reaktion Books.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in countries including the UK, Germany, Denmark, China, Croatia, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Svendsen’s books have collectively been translated into more than 25 languages.
Rune Christiansen: Ensomheten i Lydia Ernemans liv / The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life
Lydia Erneman grows up as an only child on a farm in Sweden and later moves to Norway to work as a veterinarian. She leads a quiet, independent life in which loneliness is not only a source of longing or absence, but can also offer peace and happiness. The novel won the Brage Prize.
The English edition, The Loneliness in Lydia Erneman’s Life, was translated by Kari Dickson and published by Book*hug Press in North America.
Internationally: Rights have been sold in ten languages and markets, including English, French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Arabic, and Swedish.
