Last year, Jo Nesbo’s book The Redbreast won the award for best translated thriller in an English speaking country. Six years earlier, the book received the prestigious book award Bokhandlerprisen in Norway.
Jo Nesbo has written a total of seven books about Harry Hole, and all of the books circle around crime and mystery. In The Redbreast, Hole is drawn into a mystery that deals with "the front men,” the young Norwegians who fought for Hitler, and their idealism that was punished by their countrymen.
Nesbo didn't have to go too far with the most important part of the research.
“Almost all the incidents and details from the trenches outside Leningrad are my father’s stories", says Nesbø who futher explains his father volunteered to fight the Russians at the age of 18. His mother's background is also used in some of the stories.
Becoming a writer was never actually a part of Nesbo's plan. One day, Nesbo decided that working as a financial accountant at daytime, and being a musician in the band DiDerre at nighttime wasn't what he wanted. He took six months off and traveled to Australia. When he came back he had the manuscript of his first novel, Flaggermusmannen, in his hand. The book was a hit.
The publication date for The Redbreast is December 1. This is the third book in the Harry Hole series, but it is the first Harry Hole book ever published in the US.