This list includes books written by Norwegian authors that have been published in the U.S., as well as books written by American authors that have some affiliation with Norway. This is by no means a complete list. If you have tips on other titles, feel free to send them our way: cg.newyork@mfa.no
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
2009
Kjell Ola Dahl "The Man in the Window"
(Thomas Dunne Books – novel)
"A cryptic murder resurrects dark memories of past atrocities in this latest mystery from the master of Norwegian crime writing. Award-winning author K. O. Dahl received international acclaim for his gripping debut thriller, The Fourth Man, which introduced readers to Detective Inspector Frank Frølich and Detective Chief Inspector Gunnarstranda. Now the Oslo detectives are back."
Jan Kjærstad "The Conqueror"
(Open Letter - novel)
"Jonas Wergeland is in prison for the murder of his wife. The most beloved and celebrated television personality in Norway, Wergeland’s programs on the history of Norway held the country in his thrall. The spectacle of his downfall has done the same."
Jan Kjærstad "The Discoverer"
(Open Letter - novel)
"The final novel in a trilogy of books about the Norwegian television celebrity Jonas Wergeland, The Discoverer finds Jonas released from prison, having completed his sentence for the death of his wife. He has taken a job as a secretary aboard the Voyager, a ship which is exploring the far reaches of the Sognefjord—the longest fjord in the world. On the ship, Jonas works for a team of young people—including his daughter, Kristin—who are engaged in a multimedia project that is seeking to chart every aspect of the fjord in a new medium that merges text, image, film, and design."
Jo Nesbø “Nemesis"
(HarperCollins - crime)
"Gripping and surprising, Nemesis is a nail-biting thriller from one of the biggest stars in crime fiction. Grainy closed-circuit television footage shows a man walking into an Oslo bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells the young woman to count to twenty-five. When the robber doesn't get his money in time, the cashier is executed, and two million Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace. Police Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case. "
2008
Åsne Seierstad "The Angel of Grozny"
This book is about children born in wartorn Chechnya. What happens to children raised in a world of war and violence? What happens to the family?
Arnold Weinstein "Northern Arts"
(Princeton - Arts)
Northern Arts is a magnificent and provocative exploration of Scandinavian literature and art. With intellectual power and deep emotional insights, writer and critic Arnold Weinstein guides us through the most startling works created by Scandinavian writers and artists.
Linn Ullmann "A Blessed Child"
(Random House - Novel)
From the internationally acclaimed author of Stella Descending and Grace comes a captivating story of sisterhood and of the inescapable chords of childhood memory. A Blessed Child is Linn Ullmann's fourth novel to be published in the U.S. and her books have been published in 30 countries around the world.
Runo Isaksen "Literature and War, Conversations with Israeli and Palestinian Writers"
(Interlink Publishing - non fiction)
Journalist Runo Isaksen, confronting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, found himself wondering: How can literature play a role in helping the one side to see the other? To answer this question, he interviewed fifteen pre-eminent Israeli and Palestinian writers, asking them what role literature may play in creating dialogue, ending war, building peace. The conversations that result are both deeply personal and deeply political, both reflective and urgent; they both complicate and clarify our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Per Petterson "To Siberia"
(Graywolf Press - Novel)
A brother and sister are forced ever more closely together after the suicide of their grandfather. Their parents’ neglect leaves them wandering the streets of their small Danish village. In To Siberia, Per Petterson explores a life that is outwardly barren but sharply etched, charged with meaning.
Karin Fossum "Black Seconds"
(Harcourt Press - Novel)
Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off toward town. A good-natured, happy girl, she is looking forward to her tenth birthday. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother starts to worry. She phones store owners, Ida’s friends—anyone who could have seen her. But no one has. Karin Fossum returns with Inspector Konrad Sejer, who earlier this year won her the LA Times Book Award for "The Indian Bride."
Jason "Pocket Full of Rain"
(Fantagraphics Books)
The unstoppable Jason is back again with this multifaceted anthology that collects over 25 stories from the first decade of his career, including the novella-length thriller "Pocket Full of Rain," which has never before been published in English.
Jason “The Last Musketeer”
(Fantagraphics Books)
Jason's fourth full-color comic album is a vintage sci-fi adventure set in present time. It introduces us to the old and out-dated musketeer Athos. When the Martians attack Earth, Athos leaps back into the fray with a vengeance.
Anne Holt “What Never Happens”
(Grand Central Publishing - crime)
Oslo husband-and-wife detectives Adam Stubo and Johanne Vik go up against an ingenious and brutal serial killer in this crime thriller by one of Norway's most famous authors.
Anne Holt “What is mine”
(Grand Central Publishing - crime)
One afternoon after school, nine-year-old Emilie doesn't come home. A week later, a five-year-old boy goes missing. And then another. This is the first crime by Anne Holt to be published in the U.S.
Jan Egeland “A Billion Lives – An Eyewitness Report From the Frontlines of Humanity”
(Simon and Schuster - non fiction)
Jan Egeland was one of the closest advisors to Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan during his tenure, and is described by TIMES as one of the individuals who shape our world. In this book, he narrates the backdrop of international crisis he is involved with. He offers a glimpse of the often contradictory relationship between public perceptions and what is being portrayed by the media, and what “real” backroom diplomacy is about.
Kjell Ola Dahl “The Fourth Man”
(Thomas Dunne Books – novel)
Dahl is one of Norways top crime writers. This book is described by Dahl himself as a kind of Norwegian noir, inspired by American movies from the 1940’s and 50’s. The novel leads the reader into the dark underworld of Oslo, in this story about a man who has to take the consequences of his own actions.
Marcus Thrane "Marcus Thrane Collection"
(NAHA – plays)
Thrane (1817-1890) was a noted advocate of social democracy in Norway and the U.S. during the 19th century. While in the U.S. he wrote several plays in Norwegian – these plays have now been translated into English.
Jessica Day George “Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow”
(Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books)
Prepare for some magic in this novel based on a Norwegian fairytale, that tells the story of Lass, a girl who has the ability to understand animals. One day, she meets a polar. Soon it is clear that the polar bear is no bear at all, but a prince who has been enchanted by a troll queen. It is up to Lass to save him.
Read more at Jessica Day George’s website.
Siri Hustvedt “The Sorrows Of An American” (Henry Holt and Co. - novel)
In this novel, we meet the Norwegian-American psychiatrist Erik Davidsen and his sister Inga. Hustvedt herself comes from a Norwegian family, and here she explores themes such as migration, art, divorce and loss.
Read more here (search for author’s name).
2007
Jason “The Living and the Dead"
(Fantagraphics Books)
Jason returns to his two-tone mute roots with this zombie comedy that he intends to be the middle installment of his "horror trilogy" begun with the Frankenstein monster love triangle of You Can't Get There From Here.
Jason “The Left Bank Gang”
(Fantagraphics Books)
This graphic novel is set in 1920s Paris, and is a re-imagining of the literary figures of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce. Only in Jason’s world these writers don’t write only novels – they write graphic novels. 2007 Eisner Award Winner, Best U.S. Edition of International Material. Described by Time.com as tales that turn into “Aesop-like fables with a modern, existential twist.”
Vendela Vida ”Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name"
(Ecco - novel)
When Clarissa finds out her recently diseased father is not really her biological father, she sets out on a long trip to the Northern Cap. In the Sàmi areas of Northern Norway she traces her shattered family, and finds even more than she expected.
Jo Nesbø “The Redbreast”
(HarperCollins - crime)
This award winning crime novel is the third book about Harry Hole, an alcoholic detective in the capital of Norway. In “The Redbreast” Hole is drawn into a mystery that deals with the young Norwegians who fought Hitler during the Second World War.
Per Petterson “Out Stealing Horses”
(Graywolf Press – novel)
This novel made an international literary star out of Petterson, and made the New York Times Book Review list of best fiction of 2007. Petterson was also nominated for the L.A. Times Book Prizes, and the novel made the New York Book Review list of best fiction of 2007.
Ingvar Ambjørnsen “Elling”
(MacAdam/Cage Publishing Company - novel)
American audiences are introduced to Elling through this third book of a series of four. The Elling story has been performed on stage all over the world, and three of the books have been adapted to the screen. Elling is a neurotic mama’s boy in his forties, who suddenly has to make it on his own with the sole help of his mentally confused friend Kjell Bjarne. Elling will annoy you. But you can’t help loving him.
Halfdan Freihow “Dear Gabriel”
(MacAdam/Cage – novel)
Though a novel, this book is in the form of a personal letter from Freihow to his autistic son, and describes frustration and misunderstanding as well as parental pride and unconditional love. Described as “among the most beautiful things written in Norwegian”, when it was published in Norway.
Karin Fossum “The Indian Bride”
(Harcourt – novel)
This is one of Fossum's novels about her popular Inspector Konrad Sejer. This time, the inspector must solve a murder mystery in an isolated Norwegian village where everybody knows everybody. No one wants to believe the murderer could be walking around among them ... Fossum won the L.A. Times Book Prize for this novel.
Mary Wollstonecraft “Letters Written During A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark”
(first published in 1889, republished by Kessinger Publishing - non fiction)
In the 1790’s, Wollstonecraft, a passionate politically radical woman, took a trip to Scandinavia with her daughter. Partway into the trip, she left her daughter with her maid and went to explore the most remote regions, all the while writing about the role of women, man’s place in nature, human habits and manners.
Doug Dildy, John White “Denmark and Norway 1940: Hitler’s boldest operation”
(Osprey Publishing - non fiction)
On April 9th, 1940, German forces invaded Denmark, and then Norway. This assault represents the first joint air-land-and-sea campaign in the history of warfare.
2006
Sam Moses "At All Costs"
(Random House)
In this account, Sam Moses tells the true story about the heroism of two men - Lonnie Dales and Frederick Larsen - in battle at sea during World War II, and of Minda Larsen - Frederick's wife - fleeing Nazi Norway with her child, 3 year old Jan. From Kirkus (starred review): "a riveting tale ... a thrilling adventure on the high seas ... Highly recommended for fans of naval adventure."
Dag Solstad “Shyness & Dignity”
(Graywolf Press – novel)
Solstad is praised as one of the most innovative novelists of his generation in Norway, and has won numerous awards. In this novel, we meet Elias Rukla, a teacher who suddenly experiences an intense passion after having a novel insight into Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck”. Rukla soon realizes that this day will be the decisive day of his life.
Jon Fosse “Melancholy”
(Dalkey Archive Press – novel)
The award winning writer Jon Fosse combines fiction and reality in “Melancholy”, where he tells the story about the renowned Norwegian painter Lars Hertervig, who was incarcerated at an insane asylum with the diagnosis “melankolia”. First published in Norwegian in 1995, “Melancholy” has already become a modern day classic.
Laila Stien “Antiphony”
(Nordic Studies Press – novel)
After being told she lacks initiative, the young narrator – a social scientist and journalist – goes to Northern Norway to write a book about the Sàmis. The novel presents a picture of Sàmi culture in transition, and shows how an indigenous culture reacts to a dominant culture.
Karin Fossum “When the Devil Holds the Candle”
(Harcourt Books – crime)
Norway’s “Queen of Crime” returns with yet another chilling mystery in the Inspector Sejer series. This psychological thriller is Fossum’s third book about the Inspector.
Elisabeth Tostrup “Norwegian Wood: The Thoughtful Architecture of Wenche Selmer”
(Princeton Architectural Press - Architecture)
Wenche Selmer (1920-1998) was one of the few women who gained prominence among European architects in the mid-twentieth century. This book features 14 of her beautiful wooden cabins and houses, with detailed descriptions, plans and a wealth of archival images.
Helge Ingstad “Among Alaska’s Inland Eskimos”
(first published in the U.S. in 1954, special edition published by The Countryman Press - non fiction)
Explorer and author Ingstad lived with the Nunamits in their community of hunters and gatherers in Alaska. With this edition’s new preface, readers will also learn about how the Nunamit society has evolved.
Toril Moi “Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism”
(Oxford University Press - non fiction)
In this critically acclaimed book, one of the most renowned Ibsen scholars of the world situates Ibsen in his own cultural contexts, and makes a strong case both for Ibsen's modernity and modernism.
Anne Katrine Senstad “The Norwegians”
(photography)
Senstad lives in Oslo and New York, and has worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. With this book, she returns to her native Norway, trying to give Americans insight to what it means to be a Norwegian through photos of Norwegians in their everyday lives.
Lars Svendsen ”Fashion – A Philosophy”
(Reaktion Books - non fiction)
With dry wit, and drawing on a range of commentators from Adam Smith to Roland Barthes, professor Lars Svendsen’s (author of the critically acclaimed “A Philosophy of Boredom) book aims to instil a more reflective attutide towards fashion – thus enabling us to attain some independencce from it.
Sigrid Undset “Kristin Lavransdatter”
(Penguin Books - non fiction)
In 1928, Sigrid Undset – one of Norway’s most famous writers of all times – received the Nobel Prize in Literature for her triology on Kristin Lavransdatter. Set in the 1300’s, the story follows the life span of Kristin, as she struggles with the established norms of religion and gender roles.
2005
Princess Märtha Louise and Svein Nyhus (illustrations) “Why Kings and Queens Don’t Wear Crowns"
(Skandisk, Inc. - children’s book)
This book by Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise tells the touching story of little Prince Olav, who came to Norway from Denmark in 1905 with his parents King Haakon and Queen Maud, and of why Norwegian royalty don’t wear crowns.
“Norway: Portrait of a Nation”
(Dinamo, U.S. distribution by Nordic Home - non fiction)
Released in conjunction with Norway’s cenntenial celebration, this book gives an insight into Norway’s many faces as the authors range from Crown Prince Haakon to the country’s giants in fields from political and natural resources to sports and adventurous cuisine.
Edward Dolnick “The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and a Hunt for the Missing Masterpiece”
(HarperCollins – non fiction)
Dolnick goes behind the scene of the theft of the Edward Munch painting “The Scream”, which was snatched from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994. A global search for the world famous painting followed. The book received high praise from the NYT, Time and ArtNews.
Åsne Seierstad “The Bookseller of Kabul”
(Hachette Bookgroup USA – non fiction)
This New York Times bestseller is Seierstads report from her experiences after living with a bookseller’s family in Afghanistan.
Judith Hermann “Nothing But Ghosts”
(HarperPerennial – short stories)
Judith Hermanns second collection of stories revolve around young female protagonists on travel, haunted by their past. One of the stories are set to the Northern Norwegian city of Tromsø. Another story is also set in Iceland.
Read more about the author here.
Joanne Asala (editor), Theodor Kittelsen (illustrator) “Norwegian Troll Tales”
(Penfield Books - fiction)
This collection features stories and poems by a range of well-known Norwegian writers, including Peter Asbjornsen, Jorgen Moe, Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, with beautiful illustrations of Theodor Kittelsen.
Karin Fossum “He Who Fears the Wolf”
(Harcourt Books – novel)
Se here for an interview with Fossum about the novel.
2004
Lars Svendsen “A Philosophy of Boredom”
(Reaktion Books – non fiction)
What exactly is boredom? In this critically acclaimed book, Svendsen brings together philosophy, literature, and popular culture, among other fields, to investigate the origins of boredom, how it afflicts us, and why we seem to be unable to overcome it by any act of free will.
Carla Danziger “Hidden Falls”
(iUniverse Press - crime)
In this mystery set in Norway, and American woman’s determination to find her cousin’s killer thrusts her into danger, romance, and a quest for justice. Large print edition published by Thorndike Press in 2008.
Jonathan Marshall “Reunion in Norway”
(Ruder Finn Press, Inc. - novel)
The novel, based on the activities of a documented underground operation in Norway – the Theta Group – follows Ollie’s story in real time and flash backs.
Lars Saabye Christensen “The Half Brother”
(Random House - novel)
Christensen is considered one of the most important Norwegian authors of our time. His hugely successful novel “The Half Brother” is a hauting story of four generations of a strange Norwegian family.
Paul Watkins “Fellowship of Ghosts: A Journey Through the Mountains of Norway"
(National Geographic - non fiction)
American Paul Watkins hikes through the mountains of Central Norway, companied by his “ghosts”; earlier, mostly English, authors who also wrote about their travels in these mountains.
2003
Henrik Wergeland "The Army of Truth: Selected Poems"
(University of Wisconsin Press - Poetry)
This compilation of poems by Norway's prehaps greatest poet is translated to English by Anne Born and edited by Ragnhild Galtung with special focus on Wergeland's tireless fight for equal rights for Jews in Norway. The book contains an introduction by Dagne Groven Myhren.
Jan Kjærstad “The Seducer”
(Arcadia Books – novel)
The successful tv documentary producer Jonas Wergeland finds his wife dead on the living room floor, in this post-modernist international bestseller. “The Seducer” won the Nordic Prize for Literature in 2001.
“An enormously accomplished and compelling novel” – Paul Auster
Read more about the author here.
Andreas Viestad “Kitchen of Light – New Scandinavian Cooking”
(Artisan - non fiction)
One of Norway’s most famous tv-chefs and food writers provides a range of dishes with a history dating back to the Vikings. But this is not just about food, Viestad also gives a learning experience regarding the traditions, culture and lifestyle of the old as well as modernday Norway.
Read more here.
2002
Jason ”Sshhhh!”
(Fantagraphics Books)
A ”sharp suite of short tales”, this pantomime comic ranges from the funny to the terrifying. Jason’s work has drawn comparisons to the likes of Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman. With elegant, minimalist style, Jason creates both emotional depth and complexity, with dark wit and surprising turns.
Jan Brett (illustrator) “Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve?”
(Putnam Juvenile – children’s book)
Suitable for young children, this is a story based on a traditional Norwegian folktale, about a boy traveling from Finnmark to Oslo with his pet polar bear. With trolls, Norwegian folk motifs and Northern lights, all in Jan Brett's lush illustrations.