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Gyldendal Agency Foreign Rights Guide Fall/Winter 2021

Anne Cathrine Eng anne.cathrine.eng@gyldendal.no Foreign Rights Director Nina Pedersen nina.pedersen@gyldendal.no Literary Agent Kirsti Kristoffersen kirsti.kristoffersen@gyldendal.no Film & TV Rights // Visitor address Sehesteds gate 4 0130 Oslo, Norway Postal address P.o. box 6860, St. Olavs plass 0130 Oslo, Norway https://agency.gyldendal.no

FICTION NOVELS // CRIME THRILLER // POETRY

FICTION NOVELS

Publisher: Gyldendal

FOREIGN SALES:

Publication year: July 2021

Germany, Random House Poland, Smak Słowa Hungary, Typotex

270 pages

The White Map Cecilie Enger

A gripping historical novel from Cecilie Enger They set out as pioneers of their time in the late 1800s, but kept their private lives hidden. Bertha Torgersen and Hanna Brummenæs are unknown figures to most people, but the story of the two shop girls who met in Karmøy’s hard, masculine mining community, and – wearing men’s hats and coats – forced their way into male-dominated positions, is both astonishing and moving. These two transgressive ‘male-women’ kept their love a secret from the world around them and embarked on an extraordinary journey up through the social ranks, but also experienced misery in the wake of their life choices. “An intimate and down-to-earth portrait of two Norwegian pioneers in sexuality, commerce, and gender equality. [...] Enger conjures up the soul of Bertha Torgersen’s main character.” Leif Bull, Dagens Næringsliv “The White Map is a novel about daring to choose one’s own path. It’s the tale of two women who went to great lengths to add more colour to that map.” Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK

Cecilie Enger Award winning writer with strong portraits of female characters. Cecilie Enger was born in 1963, and has studied history, Norwegian and journalism. She also works as a feature journalist when she is not writing critically-acclaimed novels. Her big break came with Mother’s Gifts in 2013, which sold internationally and earned her the Booksellers’ Prize that year. She is best known for biographical and historically-inspired novels as well as strong portraits of female characters.

FICTION NOVELS

Areas of Special Significance Heidi Mittun-Kjos

An extraordinary debut novel – sharp, confident and merciless. A novel for everyone who runs – in whatever form that might take. Ada lives with her husband Sigurd and two small children in northwest Oslo. Almost every evening she pulls on her running shoes, turns on her headlamp, and disappears into the darkness along the paths of the forest. This summer she intends to complete the 100-kilometre-long Nordmarka Ultra, and in each step, each training session, a portrait of an extraordinary woman emerges. Passionate, almost obsessed, with a severe, almost venomous gaze and a childhood filled with apocalyptic delusions that to a large extent she still carries inside her.

Publisher: Tiden

In the tension between who she is for others and who she is within herself, a chasm opens up which eventually seems impossible to overcome. The closer the ultra-marathon approaches, the more urgent the question becomes: What is it about Ada?

Publication year: May 2021 294 pages

“Heidi Mittun-Kjos has written a book that is light-footed, but leaves a deep impression – physically, mentally and emotionally.” Vårt Land “Areas of Special Significance is an entertaining and dependable novel about how the fits and starts of childhood can go on in someone whose feet are never firmly planted on the ground. As a writer, Mittun-Kjos is fine, smart and funny and she lets her characters emerge at their own pace.” Klassekampen

Heidi Mittun-Kjos Heidi Mittun-Kjos (b. 1972) was born and grew up in Oslo. She is the creative director of a design and advertising agency, and has attended Gyldendal’s Academy of Creative Writing. Areas of Special Significance is her first novel.

FICTION NOVELS

Dad Almost Went to Woodstock Ane Barmen

A novel about how our upbringing shapes who we are, and about shame and forgiveness. Theis lives alone and doesn’t really have any contact with anyone other than his dog Snuppa. But Snuppa is getting old and has to be put down, so, after several years of silence, Theis gets in touch with his daughter Ruby. Ruby is reluctant to have anything to do with her occasionally alcoholic father. She and her partner have also long been trying to have children together, without success, and a fresh encounter with her father only reminds her of everything that they haven’t achieved – any of them. Dad Almost Went to Woodstock is a novel about how our upbringing shapes who we are, and about shame and forgiveness. It’s a story about a problematic father-daughter relationship, written with both bite and compassion, and with cutting and poignant observations about the motivations behind parenting and charity – which are not always selfless.

PAPPA VAR NESTEN PÅ WOODSTOCK ANE BARMEN Roman

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: July 2021 250 pages

FOREIGN SALES: Denmark, Straarup & Co

Ane Barmen Ane Barmen (b. 1984) is trained as an actor and musicologist, and has attended Gyldendal’s Writing Academy. She works as an actor and writer.

FICTION NOVELS

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 450 pages

My Human Herbjørg Wassmo

Ruth and Gorm. She is an established artist from a poor background on an island off the coast of northern Norway. He is a merchant’s son from the same part of the country. They have had a place in each other’s consciousness ever since their first random encounter as children, but it is only as adults, with broken marriages and new beginnings behind them, that they meet in earnest. My human is the story of these two, of Ruth’s relationship to painting and recognition, of Gorm’s quest for a life of greater meaning. The urge they both have to live something that feels true is both weakened and intensified by conditions in northern Norway and forthright pragmatism. In this novel, Wassmo further explores some of the themes that have characterised her authorship: the decisive rebellion against the cards life deals you, and the price of this rebellion for oneself and one’s surroundings. But above all, it’s about the vital need to meet the person in life that you can call your own.

Herbjørg Wassmo Receiver of the Nordic Council’s Prize 1987. Her works have been published in 29 countries. Herbjørg Wassmo (born 1942) has earned her position and popularity in Norway and abroad through her ability as a powerful storyteller with a special care for the exposed and vulnerable characters. She made her début in 1976 with a collection of poetry. Her breakthrough came with the first novel about Tora, The House with the Blind Glass Windows (Huset med den blinde glassveranda) 1981, followed by two volumes forming the famous Tora Trilogy. These books contribute to a Norwegian realistic tradition about the coming of age of the unusual and artistic child. The voice of Herbjørg Wassmo has a poetic and evocative power, taking the reader very close to the disintegration of the small human being and her fight for dignity. 9

FICTION NOVELS

Stargate

Ingvild Hedemann Rishøi “I didn’t name you Ronja so that you could grow up in Tøyen,” Ronja’s dad tells her. But Tøyen is where they live – Ronja, her dad, and big sister Melissa. Christmas is coming. Dad has lost yet another job, which is why Melissa has no choice but to go out and heave Christmas trees around, Ronja has to sell seasonal garlands and sheafs, her father needs to go out to the Stargate pub, and December is all about wet mittens, commissions, and beer. But also about three wise men, a star, and a forest. Stargate is a Christmas story for our time: magical realism in a Christmas tree outlet in Tøyen. FOREIGN SALES: Sweden, Bokförlaget Flo Denmark, Batzer & co Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 150 pages

Ingvild Hedemann Rishøi Ingvild H. Rishøi (born 1978) made her literary debut in 2007 with DO NOT ERASE, a short story collection which was selected Book of the Month in the BNB Book Club and received brilliant reviews. Winner of Book Blogger’s Prize (2015), Critics’ Prize (2014), Brage Prize (2014), P.O. Enquist Prize (2013), The Hunger Prize (2012), The Unified Norwegian Language Prize (2011) Kulturhuset Stadsteaterns Internationella Litteraturpris (2019)

FICTION NOVELS

My Friends Monica Isakstuen

My Friends is a story of friendships. Conflicted friendships, convenience-friendships, invading friendships, good-old-friendships and those fresh and shiny budding friendships that sometimes Our protagonist has made an enemy. Frenemy? What should she call a brilliant best friend whose face she wants to rip off while digging out the flesh from the jaws with her fingers? How she dreads her former friend’s story of her, her version of events. At a big, horrible surprise birthday party our protagonist is confronted with every friend she’s had throughout her life, or perhaps rather with every friend she has been over the years. The speeches given are absurdly honest and increasingly confrontational. Norwegian Book Prize-winner Monica Isakstuen is heartbreakingly funny and painfully precise in her take on the marvels and pitfalls of grown-up friendships. Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 272 pages Foreign sales: Denmark, Turbine Film Rights: Pia Tjelta & Tuva Novotny Stage Rights: Riksteatret (Norway)

“Temperature is soaring when Monica Isakstuen takes on controlling and intimidating female friendships in her new, groundbreaking novel (…) A poetic intensity, paste and temperature that has the reader’s heart pounding” Maya Troberg Djuve, Dagbladet “My Friends by Monica Isakstuen is alluring and inhospitable at the same time. It this was a work of music, I would call it poetic punk. Raw and confrontational.” Christen Hvam, Fredriksstad Blad

Monica Isakstuen Monica Isakstuen (b. 1976) made her literary debut in 2009. Her 2014 novel Replay about pianist Joyce Hatto and the greatest fraud in classical music earned rave reviews, with VG naming it “one of the best books of the year”. She won the 2016 Norwegian Book Award Brageprisen for fiction for her novel Be Kind to The Animals. Brage Prize 2016

FICTION NOVELS

Power Hanna Dahl

In the novel Power, we meet Olav, a 75-year-old Norwegian veteran of the Waffen-SS. He gives his account of one of the operations he participated in on the German side during the Second World War and the life that followed in its wake. As one of Hitler’s so-called silver foxes, in March 1945 he was given a demanding special assignment. Together with five others, he was put ashore by submarine on the coast of Finnmark. Once there, they carry out their mission from their base in one of the caves previously used by the resistance. “Operation Schneehund” was carried out in the very last days of the war, while the rest of the country waited and hoped for imminent capitulation and liberation.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 160 pages

In the novel, Hanna Dahl explores how a human being lives with the burden of the consequences of his own words and actions. Power is a novel about identity, guilt, responsibility and the temptation to tell your story in a way you and those closest to you can live with. The novel is inspired by real events. “This is an exercise for myself, I am putting myself in an important person’s place. And hearing someone wish me well on my journey. I must apologise to anyone who has suffered irreparable loss due to that greeting. It sounds wicked and crude, even to me.”

Hanna Dahl Hanna Dahl (b. 1977) is from Modum. She has an education in language and literature, with the main emphasis on Russia and the former Yugoslavia. Her short story Crusader was published in the Norwegian Granta. Hanna Dahl lives in Oslo.

FICTION NOVELS

Moments for Eternity Kjersti Anfinnsen

In Birgitte Solheim’s experience, love becomes no less demanding even once she reaches ninety. Her life with and feelings for her partner Javiér are just as vivid, even if she is trapped and isolated by physical decline. Her world is limited to the four walls of her home and her daily walk, with little joys and a lot of darkness. Birgitte uncompromisingly reflects on life’s worst moments and what remains with her of loss, grief and bereavement in a world that seems more and more alien to her. Moments for Eternity is a life-affirming novel about love, death and the loneliness of life, and is the second and final book about retired heart surgeon Birgitte Solheim.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021

Kjersti Anfinnsen Kjersti Anfinnsen was born in 1975 and lives in Oslo. She took a Creative Writing course at the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art and works as a dentist. The last Signs of Love is her second book. Awarded the “Havmann” prize 2020. 13

FICTION NOVELS

Book 4

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 496 pages

Land of the Danelaw

Book 1

Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen

The fourth book in the Jomsviking series. Torstein is driven into exile on the Orkney Islands. Plagued by thoughts of revenge, he looks continuously eastwards, towards Vingulmork, which was so villainously stolen from him. As if this isn’t bad enough, Ros – his father’s murderer – has now taken over Torstein’s estate. Torstein and his men travel to Canterbury, where Torstein hopes the monks will be able to heal his critically injured son – either voluntarily, or with swords pressed to their throats. Meanwhile, the battle for England is underway – the aging Sweyn Forkbeard is determined to overthrow Ethelred and make himself ruler of the great Danish-English kingdom. Torstein knows that he must now choose his allies with care. He knows that he will be expected to fight for the Danish king, and take English land for him. He also knows that he is a wanted man, and that fewer and fewer of his old allies remain. Torstein fears for the safety of his wife Sigrid and their sons.

The fourth book in the Jomsviking series transports readers back in time to the dramatic years in which England was ravaged by an invasion that would change the course of history. There will be a war, where Danes fight against Danes and Saxons against Saxons, and where a warlord’s loyalties cannot always be trusted. Torstein will have to fight for his life. And, for the first time, be forced to enter into battle alongside his young son.

Book 2

“Jomsviking – A comprehensive and fascinating epic novel! Anyone who wants excitement, drama, rich descriptions of the environment, and reflected description on characters, gets it in Bull-Hansen’s magnificent novel Jomsviking.” Tønsbergs blad

Book 3

“Impressive, trustworthy and well-written!” VG “Magnificent new series about our warrior ancestors!” Dagbladet

Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen (1972) debuted with his short story collection Seven Stories From the Western Forest in 1996. Since then, he has written a number of books across a variety of genres. He had his international breakthrough with his novel Jomsviking (2017), which is the first in a sweeping historical series from the Viking Age. Throughout his authorship, Bull Hansen has become known for his gripping stories and powerful tales of human destiny. The Jomsviking books are sold to 9 countries so far. The author has his own Youtube-channel with over 450 k followers. 15

FICTION NOVELS

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 176 pages

We Came from Liverpool Thomas Marco Blatt

A well-written and gripping novel about family, working-class hope, unity and disintegration, and about facing the decisive events that life throws at you. When Fred O’Brien falls seriously ill, it affects his whole family. His son, Joe, who dreams of becoming a professional footballer, is forced to look for work. His daughter, Emma, has to put her plans to move on hold, and Fred’s younger brother, Dave, suddenly has to fix problems he may not be able to fix. The O’Brien family consists of people who dream big but are used to living in the shadow of major events. What if this spring changes everything? We Came from Liverpool is a well-written and gripping novel about family, working-class hope, unity and disintegration, and about facing the decisive events that life throws at you.

Thomas Marco Blatt Thomas Marco Jong Blatt (born 1980 in South Korea) is a Norwegian writer, literary critic and magazine editor. Blatt is raised in Oslo and in Sørumsand. He is educated at the Writing Academy in Hordaland and the author’s study Litterär Gestaltning at the University of Gothenburg. Blatt debuted in 2006 with the poetry collection Here I Will Measure the World, which was rewarded with Tarjei Vesaas’ Debutant Prize. His first novel, Varsjøen, was nominated for Youth Critics Prize in 2017.

FICTION NOVELS

Twelve Words from Oskar Maier Levi Henriksen

The great love of Tea Henriksen’s youth was Oskar Maier, a young German horticultural apprentice who had to leave Norway, step into uniform and head to the Eastern Front, where he ended up in Russia as a prisoner of war. The abruptly interrupted love story between the two is something Tea Henriksen’s musician son has carried with him throughout his life, like faded pictures in a photo album. His mother is long dead and her son has put the past behind him. Now he has sought shelter in Kongsvinger in order to prepare to travel to Sweden to write songs for what will be his very last, and best, record. But just before he leaves, Oskar Maier’s descendants turn up in the city. With them they have all the letters Tea Henriksen wrote to her beloved Oskar, and a wreath to lay on her grave. Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 288 pages

Levi Henriksen Award-winning author of short stories and novels, with a wide and loyal readership. Henriksen’s trademark is a capacity for combining a strong, at times aggressive, masculine voice with vulnerability. His works are mainly set in a tough, unsentimental, rural environment, which sits uncomfortably on the edges of contemporary urban life; a place where old and new values clash, and where men struggle with contemporary, urban demands on their masculinity. 18

FICTION MEMOIR

Date of Birth

My First Year as a Mother, or a Journey Into the Underworld Ida Jackson For everyone who has been a baby. For everyone who has been a life’s beginning When, as a good, modern woman, Ida Jackson became pregnant, she thought that her most important assignment was to come through the pregnancy, birth and childbirth unchanged. She would give birth naturally and return to normal as soon as possible: working as before, living as before. But she soon discovered that both body and child belong to the realm of biology, not of civilisation. Bringing a child into the world became about having to give in to the organic, to the forces of chaos, to all that cannot be controlled. Jackson depicts the speechless, terrifying and transcendental nature of the experience of giving birth, and everything that she has to go through before she can look into the eyes of the furious primeval creature that has come into being inside her. Date of Birth is a literary and autobiographical exploration of the origins of life, a powerfully personal, poetic and political book. A book about being with child, about having a child. And about becoming a completely different person.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 260 pages

Ida Jackson Ida Jackson has published books for children, young adults and adults. She has been nominated for the Brage Prize, the Critics’ prize and the Book Blogger’s Award for her previous titles.

FICTION MEMOIR

If I Fall

An Account of Work Unseen Jan Grue

There are times I forget I’m disabled. I can dwell in a self, in a body, that is simply me. But the world never forgets. It’s merely waiting for a good opportunity to remind me. If I Fall is an exploration of the particular vulnerability that accompanies chronic sickness and disability. In this account founded on his own life and experiences, Jan Grue explores how society meets this vulnerability with a demand for unseen work – for those with physical disabilities to have to toil even harder, to have to work even more, to be accepted as a person of full value Winner of P.O. Enquist Prize 2021.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 192 pages

“If I Fall is one of those books that makes you wiser for reading it; a book that leaves you with immense gratitude for the author’s ability.” – Oda Faremo Lindholm, VG “Jan Grue initiates crucial conversations about vulnerability, society and disability. […] ‘I want a different world’, Grue has also written, somewhere in I Live a Life Like Yours: ‘I want it to be more open, more free.’ With his work in If I Fall, he actually takes us in that direction, and it deserves to be seen in full.” – Carina E. Beddari, Klassekampen Heart-rending. […] Powerful autobiographical prose about vulnerability.”

Jan Grue Grue’s work deals with embodiment - with what it means to be a body in an endlessly complex world. Combining literary exploration and elements of science fiction and speculative fiction, his stories trouble the issues of what makes a meaningful life and how we value different kinds of lives. His works has been sold to 7 countries so far.

Dagbladet

FICTION MEMOIR

I Live a Life Like Yours Jan Grue

A masterpiece memoir about life in a vulnerable body. I have a congenital muscular dystrophy. I use a wheelchair. I have a college education, a job. I’m a family man. On the surface, I’m well-off. What had to happen for me to reach this point? I Live a Life Like Yours is about life in a vulnerable body. It is a story about work, about dreams and a longing to live like everyone else. It is a book about life, both common and uncommon. “Into the unknown: we don’t know where we’re going. We are sailing in a leaky boat; we know that we’re dying animals. With dreams of Byzantium, we bail out as much water as we can, sailing onward, together. We are Argonauts, astronauts, adventurers, explorers. This is our journey.” FOREIGN SALES: Sweden, Weyler USA, Farrar, Straus & Giroux UK, Pushkin Press Netherlands, Uitgeverij Oevers Iceland, Iceland University Press Denmark, Gutkind Korea, Book 21

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2018 176 pages

Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2019

…“A quietly brilliant book that warms slowly in the hands… Artful” Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Compelling, unconventional and powerfully told... His genius becomes evident in his mastery of language” Michael J. Fox, The New York Times “So sympathetic, so successful, so precise, with such a light literary touch.” Bok365

‘For Grue’s part it is in many ways a life against all odds. He describes it so beautifully and wisely that it makes one think about the great masters of the genre, like American Joan Didion (...) A literary masterpiece that is highly recommended!’ Dagbladet “A masterpiece of own life.”

Stavanger Aftenblad

“This stunning work isn’t to be missed.” Publishers Weekly, US 21

FICTION SHORT STORIES

Look Your Last on All Things Lovely Kristin Vego

There is an angel on the ground. She stands before me, gentle, transparent. It is her the light is coming from. At first I think she’s burning; the air around her is quivering, but there is the fluttering of a thousand wings, moths and other creatures, throwing themselves at her, flying back and throwing themselves at her again. She stands completely still and glows. She looks like everyone I’ve ever loved. Come, I think, come and free the fettered earth. Marie seeks out a friend from her youth in England whom she has not seen for many years. Clara spends a day in Rome with a stranger. An unnamed woman awakens to a world that has changed.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 144 pages

The women in Look Your Last on All Things Lovely all encounter something unknown, a side of life that they have never seen before. These nine short stories deal with desire and loneliness, loss and forgiveness, but also the beauty that comes to light in glimpses, the sacred and the ordinary that manifests itself in life’s coincidences.

Kristin Vego Kristin Vego (born 1991) is from Aarhus, but currently lives in Oslo. She is a critic in Dagbladet Information and editor of the magazine Vagant. Look Your Last on All Things Lovely is her first book.

NON-FICTION ESSAY

Echo

Lena Lindgren An essay on algorithms and desire. An investigative essay into some of the greatest challenges of our time: Echo was the nymph who talked too much. For this, she was sentenced to a fate in which she could only repeat what others said. In the 2000s, we meet Echo in the principles of media technology: in viral memes, social-media shitstorms and echo chambers. Whoever has the algorithms on their side wins the attention economy’s highest prize: being visible. And Echo’s great love was Narcissus, he who drowned in his own reflection. In this essay, Lena Lindgren combines economics, mythology, psychology and science with scenes from Silicon Valley. It is a judgement of our age, a stream of consciousness, and an attempt to portray humanity’s blind date with artificial intelligence.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: April 2021

“Highly recommended!”

208 pages

Marius Wulfsberg, Dagbladet

FOREIGN SALES: Denmark, Straarup & Co

“... this is brilliantly considered, first-class essay-writing.” Kjetil Røed, Vårt Land ““It never gets dull. In the end, I was left with the feeling of having been to something of an intellectual party.” – Per Kristian Bjørkeng, Aftenposten

Lena Lindgren Lena Lindgren (born 1969) lives in Oslo. She is a political editor at Morgenbladet. Echo. An essay on algorithms and desire is her first book.

FICTION POETRY

I Want to Wake up to the World Karoline Brændjord

Is it possible to make peace with being abandoned? Where do you turn when your mother takes her own life? How can you acknowledge that which is perhaps unacknowledgeable? And what do we do in nature when nature is unable to understand us? I Want to Wake up to the World reaches for the dead, for the world, and for an understanding of and reconciliation with childhood and death. Grief and a longing for freedom are expressed through visions, fantasies and revelations, along with ruthless logical observations. This is a collection of open and intimate poems, which despite their deep sadness express a profound faith in the world.

Publisher: Kolon Forlag

Winner of the Tarjej Vesaas’ Debutant Prize 2020 Winner of the Critic’s Prize for Best Fiction 2020

Publication year: 2020

“One of this year’s strongest books is a poetry collection by a debut author.” Aftenposten

FOREIGN SALES: Denmark, Turbine Sweden, Ellerströms

80 pages

Karoline Brændjord Karoline Brændjord was born in 1990, and lives in Oslo. She has attended the Academy of Creative Writing in Hordaland, and has studied North American Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. I Want to Wake up to the World is her first book.

FICTION CRIME

Hour of the Wolf Geir Tangen

HOUR OF THE WOLF is the first book in a new crime series from Haugesund, with police superintendent Gabriel Fjell and serious crime investigator Aida Ibrahim in the lead roles. A fourteen-year-old girl is found hanging in the woods. It soon becomes clear that she has been taking part in an online game spreading among the city’s youth – a game in which the final challenge is to take your own life. As an untested lead investigator, superintendent Gabriel Fjell faces a terrifying scenario: He has to find whoever is behind the game and, more importantly, prevent more young people from taking their own lives. But when there’s no perpetrator, how can he stop them? And how can he stop the young when they are intent on hurting themselves? Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 384 pages FOREIGN SALES: Italy, Giunti Editore

“Despite my high expectations of Geir Tangen’s new crime novel, I found myself blown away.” tinesundal.blogspot.com “This book was so hard to put down, and I read it in record time. If you like quivering tension interspersed with some tough descriptions, you should definitely read this!” bokblogger.com

Geir Tangen Geir Tangen (b. 1970) is from Øystese in Hardanger but has lived in Haugesund since 1996. He trained as a general education teacher and has worked in lower secondary schools since 1996. He has also worked as a freelance journalist for radio, TV and newspapers since 1990, and writes short stories in addition to his crime novels. The trilogy about Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson and Lotte Skeisvoll has been translated into several languages. He has written a number of crime stories for both young people and adults in recent years that have been published in various anthologies. In the summer of 2019, he started work on a brand new crime series. The first book, Hour of the Wolf, is expected to be published in 2021. 25

FICTION CRIME

Book 4

Publisher: Gyldendal

Foreign sales:

Publication year: May, 2021

Germany, Droemer Knaur

368 pages

Unhallowed Ground

Book 1

Agnes Lovise Matre

Far more than crawling insects and worms lies buried deep in the dark earth During some garden work in the village of Øystese, the remains of a teenager are found buried in the earth – those of a young boy who was never reported missing. The subsequent murder investigation uncovers layer upon layer of guilt, shame and weakness, and threatens to reveal local secrets – with terrible consequences for many inhabitants of the tiny village. District Sheriff Bengt Alvsaker must dig deep into the village’s misdeeds and widespread prejudices in order to find out the truth about what really happened thirty years before. Her Dark Fjord-series is situated in the spectacular Hardanger landscape with the dark, elongated fjord, blossoming fruit trees and snow on the high mountaintops during the summer and fog, rain and huge amounts of snow during the winter. In these settings she uses the crime genre as a framework to talk about “forbidden” themes like shame, feelings of guilt, suppression and secrets.

Book 2

Book 3

“Agnes Lovise Matre has done it again, delivering a suspenseful novel from a landscape she understands and with believable characters with whom we become increasingly familiar while, at the same time, a sinister atmosphere begins to dominate […] We warmly recommend it. Horror, human foibles, secrets, local colour and mighty landscapes […] She captivates the reader from the very first page.” Hardanger Folkeblad “Great writing on gay hate in Hardanger. The pieces fall into place in this well-composed puzzle.” Haugesunds avis

Agnes Lovise Matre Agnes Lovise Matre (1966) is an adjunct professor and author from Haugesund. Matre teaches Norwegian, social subjects and English at Hauge Middle School, in Haugesund. As well as being a teacher, she previously worked as a freelance journalist. She was also a member of the interim board who started Forfatterforbundet, the Norwegian Authors Union. She debuted with her novel Stroke My Hair in 2012. In Autumn 2016, her novel Naked Truth was published by Gyldendal Litteratur. 27

FICTION CRIME

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 560 pages

2020. Post Festum Gunnar Staalesen

2020. Post festum is a stand-alone continuation of Gunnar Staalesen’s sweeping trilogy of novels about Bergen and Norway in the twentieth century. The last twenty years include major dramatic events, such as the attack on the United States on 11 September 2001 and the act of terror that shook Norway on 22 July 2011. The age of oil may be coming to an end, and the battle is over the environment, climate and fundamentalism. The world is connected in completely different ways than it was before. Woven into this backdrop is a plot of strong emotions, old hatreds and grudges, emotional wrecks, personal tragedies and dreams of love. Here we follow members of the families Nesbø, Brandt, Moland – familiar to readers from The Bergen Trilogy – and several others through the last twenty years of Norwegian and international history, from the turn of the millennium to the year of the coronavirus, 2020. Beneath it all lies the enigma of the Isdal Woman, a mysterious death that occurred in Bergen in November 1970. Varg Veum comes across new information on the grapevine. Can he solve the case of the Isdal Woman, fifty years after the fact?

Gunnar Staalesen A new crime novel from the experienced hand of Staalesen is always an event in Norway – where he is one of the masters of the genre. Gunnar Staalesen was born in 1947 in the historical city of Bergen on the west coast of Norway. He took his M.A. at the Bergen University, studying English and French language and literature as well as comparative literature.

FICTION CRIME

Red Carpet Helle Stensbak

An extraordinary debut novel – sharp, confident and merciless. A novel for everyone who runs – in whatever form that might take. A battle for money and position is quaking beneath the surface at Norsefish, the nation’s largest fishing group. But the resulting boardroom wrangling is overtaken by raw brutality when, on his way out of his sister’s car at home in Bygdøy, Kolbjørn Cordtsen, majority owner of Norsefish, is hit by three rifle shots and falls down dead.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 350 pages

Police investigator Rigmor Stark is put on the case. She is a razor-sharp economist with a taste for flowery skirts and the investigatory maxim “follow the money”. After an energetic alpha leader is forced to give way to a new, beautiful graduate economist who has immigrated from Thailand via marriage, Stark uncovers conflicts everywhere she looks in Norsefish. At the same time, an angry Finnmark fisherman is battling with the corporation over fishing quotas and conditions in the north. The investigation leads Rigmor Stark from Oslo’s financial elite to the windswept island of Kardøya at the far end of the Barents Sea, where Norsefish has made a devastating environmental impact. And there are more deaths to come.

Helle Stensbak Helle Stensbak (b. 1961 in Hamar) lives in Oslo. She has a degree in social economics from the University of Oslo, works as chief economist at the Confederation of Vocational Unions and writes about economics in Norway’s largest morning paper. She was a musician for fifteen years and has played with a number of recognised bands in Oslo’s underground music scene. 30

FICTION CRIME

The Devil in the Details Chris Tvedt

A Polish man’s throat is cut in a sports centre in Bergen. The Danish contract killer who committed the murder is quickly arrested, but only a few days later he is found dead in his cell, having apparently hanged himself. Shortly afterwards, local gangster Peter Olsen is arrested for ordering the murder of the Pole. Everything points towards his guilt, but his defence lawyer Mikael Brenne remains unconvinced. There are too many details in the case that don’t add up. Mikael is also sceptical about whether the killer really did commit suicide as the prison claims. One night there’s a knock on the door at Brenne’s home. It’s Peter Olsen. He has escaped from prison so as not to suffer the same fate as the Dane. Mikael has no choice but to take him in as an unwelcome guest. Olsen has something on Mikael, a blunder that will cost him his career if it is ever made public.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021

As if this were not enough, Kripos investigator Edvard Matre also comes into the frame. Edvard has his own agenda. For him, Mikael Brenne and Peter Olsen are only pawns in a game to expose corruption at the upper levels of the Bergen police force. But it will turn out to be a dangerous game for everyone involved – not least for Mikael Brenne.

Chris Tvedt Chris Tvedt (born 1954 in Bergen) is an author and a lawyer, having studied literature alongside law at the University of Bergen. More recently he has devoted himself to writing full-time. Tvedt debuted in 2005 with the crime novel Reasonable Doubt. He has written several books starring the lawyer Mikael Brenne. In 2010, his novel Death’s Circle earned him the Riverton Prize for the year’s best Norwegian crime fiction. 31

FICTION THRILLER

Red Star Ørjan N. Karlsson

Book 3

This is the third book about Ida Vinterdal, squad leader in the special forces Group Alpha. 1 January 2021: Norway becomes a member of the UN Security Council. Five weeks later, Monrad Foyn, Norway’s ambassador to the UN, is found dead at his New York residence. On Svalbard, the Norwegian police make a shocking discovery when the bodies of two Russian special forces are found outside a controversial radar station. Is there a connection between the two cases? Ida Vinterdal, who is sent to Svalbard to assist the police, believes so. Some people, at least, are willing to go to any length to keep the truth from emerging. A truth that could have huge consequences for Norway and the High North.

Publisher: Gyldendal

This is the third book about Ida Vinterdal, squad leader in the special forces Group Alpha.

Publication year: May 2021

Book 1

Book 2

Ørjan N. Karlsson Ørjan N. Karlsson (b. 1970) grew up in Bodø. A sociologist by trade, he received officer training in the army and has taken part in overseas missions. He has worked in the Defence Ministry and is now a departmental manager in the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection. He has written a large number of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime novels for adults. Visit the author’s homepage at www.orjankarlsson.com. 32

FICTION THRILLER

A Tiny Ethical Misstep Julie S. Werenskiold

An original and timely conspiracy thriller for a new age, with elements of pulp and romance Freelance journalist Svala is a little too fond of champagne and late nights out on the town, and a little too lax when it comes to keeping tabs on her finances. On a flight across the Atlantic she receives a tip about a hot story – the scoop of an era that will shake up the entire world and save Svala’s career. But the day after the news report is published, Svala receives an encrypted email accusing her report of being fake news. Svala realises that the hunt for the truth may end up costing her far more than money and success. The minimum rate here is human lives – and not just her own. Svala is lured into an international game in which news, facts and information have become hot commodities. Fanatics use religion, ethnicity and migration as weapons in a global culture war for political influence, while secret services have been granted free rein and have more effective means at their disposal than ever before...

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 416 pages

“... refreshing thriller debut with James Bond-like dimensions. [...] Werenskiold is a fine, effortless writer, and demonstrates impressive insight into dirty international politics and the machinations of the superpowers.” Dagbladet “... hold on tight because Julie S. Werenskiold goes full throttle from page one and keeps the pedal to the floor until the very end.”

Julie S. Werenskiold Julie S. Werenskiold is from Oslo. She has studied film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and works as a freelance journalist. Photo: Julie Pike A Tiny Ethical Misstep is her first novel. 33

FICTION THRILLER

The Zeta Virus Øystein Bogen

An intensely engaging political thriller about one of the greatest security threats of our time. As a young computer genius, Misha Borodin is forced into Russia’s most secret intelligence agency, where he is tasked with developing viruses that will infiltrate and destroy other states’ critical infrastructure. At the same time, he is strongly opposed to the corrupt and oppressive regime and decides to defect to Norway. The Russian state is prepared to do anything to stop him. Misha carries the code for Zeta, the world’s most advanced computer virus, in his head. After a dramatic escape, he makes it over the border, but soon discovers that Norway is no safe haven either – for whom can he trust when the Norwegian government has also been infiltrated by Russian intelligence? With a ruthless Russian kill squad on his heels, he has to use his skills as a hacker to try to save himself and the Norwegian social order.

Publisher: Gyldendal Publication year: 2021 352 pages

Øystein Bogen Øystein Bogen has many years of experience as a foreign journalist and is very familiar with Russia. The Zeta Virus is his first work of fiction.