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10 Great Books to Read About Norway
Winter is here, and it is time to have a “koselig” time indoors, with a good book in your hands nd a pledd on your knees. Here is a list of 12 books I recommend to read to learn about Norway. These are mostly books of fiction, such as novels, and most are written by Norwegian authors. Norwegian literature is a lot about the sea, nature, and family relationships, often with conflicts. I hope you like my selection, let me know if you have any other reading tips in the comment section!
1- The Mercies, by Kiran Milwood Hargrave
This is one of the only books of my list not written by a Norwegian author, yet it is also one of the most fascinating novels about Norway I’ve read in a long time. The story is inspired by historical events on the islands of Vardø in the very north of Norway, where the biggest witch trials of Europe were led in the 17th century. As a village loses all of its men in a storm, when they went out to fish at sea, the women are left “alone” to organise the community. The Church wants to take back control of this place on the edge of the civilised world, by sending a brutal commissioner to impose Christian values. One gets a glimpse of how society functioned back then, on an isolated island, where the power of the Church was huge, both deciding of the fate of oppressed indigenous Sami people as well as women.
2- Shark drunk, by Morten Strøknes
Norwegian title: “Havboka”
It is a salty story of friendship, adventure, and the explosive life that teems beneath the ocean. In the great depths surrounding the remote Lofoten islands in Norway lives the Greenland shark. Twenty-six feet in length and weighing more than a tonne, it can live for 200 years. Its fluorescent green, parasite-covered eyes are said to hypnotise its prey, and its meat is so riddled with poison that, when consumed, it sends people into a hallucinatory trance.
Armed with little more than their wits and a tiny rubber boat, Morten Strøksnes and his friend Hugo set out in pursuit of this enigmatic creature. Drawing on science, poetry, history, ecology and mythology, Shark Drunk is the story of their quixotic quest. Together, they tackle existential questions, experience the best and worst nature can throw at them, and explore the astonishing life teeming at the ocean’s depths.
3- A fugitive crosses his tracks, by Aksel Sandemose
(Title in Norwegian: En flyktning krysser sitt spor)
This book is extremely important to understand Scandinavian societies, since it shapes the concept of “Janteloven” which still has strong traces in today’s Norwegian society. It is therefore strange that this book is so hard to get hold of, especially in English or French. Many bloggers, writers and influencers on Norwegian culture quote the 10 “rules” of Janteloven without having read the source of the rules: this book by Aksel Sandemose, who was half Danish half Norwegian and wrote the novel in 1933.
This is in fact written in the form of a novel, where one follows the life of a boy and his family in an imagined village called Jante. One understands Norwegian and Danish society more deeply when reading this book, because of the oppression of classes the boy and his family suffers as well as the huge pressure from the Church. Janteloven is just one or two pages in the book, but the rest of the novel is in fact much more important to fully understand the origins of today’s society. A must read to understand Norwegian society.
4- Norwegian wood, by Lars Mytting
Title in Norwegian: Hel ved
The book is a sort of how-to guide for amateur and professional, alike. There is plenty of intriguing advice about clever ways to move logs using nature: sliding a trunk on ice or, the oldest and easiest means of transport, floating it on water. Although a paean to birch, the “queen of the Norwegian forests”, Norwegian Wood also discusses the value of other species, and Mytting writes about why certain logs are preferred: “the snap and crackle of the conifers … the broad, flat flame of the aspen … ” It is interesting that the counsel about axes is normally to go for something lighter and smaller: “twice the speed quadruples the force of impact”. There are many great tips, such as the old Norwegian habit of smearing the ends of chopped logs with snow: the morning sun melts it, and come nightfall it will freeze, stretching apart the fibres so that it cleaves with the first blow of your axe. (Source The Guardian).
There is another book called Norwegian wood, by Haruki Murakami, inspired by the Beatles song. Neither of these have anything to do with Norwegian society 🙂
5- My struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgård
Title in Norwegian: Min kamp.
My Struggle is a six-book autobiographical series by Karl Ove Knausgård outlining the “banalities and humiliations of his life”, his private pleasures, and his dark thoughts. These books are perfect if you want to read a middle-aged Norwegian man’s thoughts and understand his life. He writes in details about how he feels about his life, his wife with psychological issues, his children and his role in society, in his family etc.
These books are not fiction, they are about his own life, and brought him to the highest level of fame in Norway. See a review of his books in The Guardian: Review of My Struggle.
6- Berlin Popplars, by Anne B.Ragde
This novel is a book I advise to read by the fireplace. On a remote farm in northern Norway, eighty-year-old Anna Neshov is rushed to hospital after suffering a stroke. Her three sons have not spoken in some time. Margido, a devout Christian, works in Trondheim as a funeral director. Erlend, a successful window dresser, lives a life of luxury in a penthouse in Copenhagen, while Tor, the eldest brother, remains rearing pigs on the decaying family farm.
Winner of the Riksmål Prize in Norway.
7- Our street, by Zeshan Shaker
Norwegian title: Tante Ulrikkes vei
This writer took Norway by storm with his book “Tante Ulrikkes vei”, a street in the Stovner area of Oslo, known to have many people with immigrant background. The book tells the story of two teenage boys in today’s Norway, their lives and struggles as second generation immigrants. The kids speak so-called “kebabnorsk” which is a pejorative term for a Norwegian language mixing Norwegian and foreign words.
The author won many prizes for this book, and it has become a theatre play.
8- Doppler, by Erlend Loe
Norwegian title: Doppler
Erlend Loe is one of my absolute favourite Norwegian authors. He is incredibly funny and writes creative and true novels every time. I recommend reading his books in Norwegian to help you learn Norwegian, since he writes short sentences and with great spirit. Doppler is a classic, that received international praise.
9- Jo Nesbø
Norwegian title: Blodmåne
Jo Nesbø is a master at crime novels, with his worldwide famous Harry Hole detective. It was hard to choose just one of his books, but this is one of the most acclaimed he wrote, becoming a New York Times bestseller.
10- A Frog in the Fjord: One Year in Norway, by Lorelou Desjardins
Norwegian title: En frosk i fjorden- Kunsten å bli norsk
Of course why not indulge in self-promotion!
My book was a bestseller in Norwegian when it came out, and has since then come out in English and in French. Recommended by Forbes as one of the books to read about “real” Scandinavia, it is my personal story of moving to Norway, learning the language, discovering the Norwegian culture and trying to make Norwegian friends.
I have left out classics such as Knut Hamsun, Henrik Ibsen, Tarjej Vesaas and Jostein Gaarder, saving them for another article about Classic Norwegian Literature Must Reads.
Did I forget anything? Let me know in the comments section!
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