Jostein Gaarder
Jostein Gaarder (born 8 August 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often uses metafiction in his works, writing stories within stories.
Sophie’s World (Sofies Verden) is a philosophical novel about Sophie. The novel is mostly consisting of dialogues between Sophie Amundsen and a mysterious man named Alberto Knox, interwoven with an increasingly bizarre and mysterious plot, Sophie's World acts as both a novel and a basic guide to philosophy. The book was published in 1991 and in 1995 it became the world’s best selling novel. The book has later been translated into 54 languages, has sold over 30 million copies, been filmatised, made into a musical, a boardgame and a PC-game. It is easily the most successful single Norwegian novel of all time. Gaarder has also written several other book, “The Solitaire Mystery” (Kabalmysteriet) being arguably his second most successful work, but actually being the direct predecessor to “Sophie’s World”.
Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse (born 29 September 1959) is a Norwegian author and dramatist.
Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black). His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry, children's books, essays and plays and his works have been translated into more than forty languages. He is widely considered as one of the world's greatest contemporary playwrights. Fosse was made a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France in 2007. Fosse also has been ranked number 83 on the list of the Top 100 living geniuses by The Daily Telegraph.
On September 10th he received the international Ibsen-price for his “unique dramatically authorship which opens up beautiful perspectives towards the indescribable mysteries which are man’s companion from cradle to grave.” Fosse is described as more than just a leading name in international drama; “he is an entire universe by himself”.
The very first play by Jon Fosse on a Chinese stage was performed in October 2010 in Shanghai. The play was called “Someone is going to come”
Lars Saabye Christensen
He has published 47 books, 2 cd’s. His first book “The Amateur” was published in 1977. Many of his books has been translated into a wide variety of languages. His most successful book, “The Half Brother” has been translated and published in 31 different countries, including Bangladesh, South Korea, Brazil, Russia and most European countries. “The Half Brother” is also the book that he won the Nordic Council’s Literary Price award for in 2001.
His books often centre on people who struggle with insecurity, a lack of aspect on their own lives which leads them to acting wrong and clumsy. He is also a great generational portrayer.
He wrote the script for a tv-series "Landstrykere", based on Knut Hamsun’s August trilogy. He also wrote the script for “The telegrapher”, a movie based on the Knut Hamsun’s “Svermere”.
He was awarded the "Chevalier dans L’ordre des Arts et Lettres" (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by the French Government; the award was presented by the French Minister of Culture and Communications in April, 2008.
He has also won several Norwegian prizes for his writings, and “Beatles” was voted the most important Norwegian novel the last 25 years in 2006 in one of Norway’s biggest newspapers.
On October 24th 2006 he was presented with the honor “Commander of the Royal Norwegian St. Olav’s Order” by His Majesty the King for his contributions to Norwegian literature.
Erlend Loe
Erlend Loe (1969–) has appeared on stage and made short films and music videos. He has been a newspaper critic, has worked in a psychiatric hospital and as a temp schoolteacher. His literary début came in 1993 with the novel Tatt av kvinnen (Gone with the Woman), which was characterized by the critics as «extremely funny and artful». The novel was adapted to film in the autumn of 2006.Loe’s style of writing is short, ironic, humoristic and exaggerative.Loe's second novel, Naiv. Super. (Naïve.Super.), 1996, was his great break-through. Both readers - especially the young - and the critics were very enthusiastic about the novel. This is an unpretentious story about very complicated things. According to one reviewer: «A little stroke of naive genius.» And another: «Erlend Loe will rouse at least as much interest in philosophical matters among his readers as Jostein Gaarder.» He also received the award ”Prix Européen des Jeunes Lecteurs” (European Youth literature Prce) for this book.
He also writes scripts and the Norwegian movie “Detector” became a big success in Norway. He has written several children’s books where the fork-lift driver Kurt is the main person. In 2008 the animation movie about Kurt, “Kurt becomes gruesome” premiered on cinemas.
Linn Ullmann
Ullmann is the daughter of actress, author and director Liv Ullmann and director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman.
Linn Ullmann (born 1966) is a graduate of New York University, where she studied English literature and began work on her Ph.D. When her first and critically acclaimed novel Before You Sleep was published in 1998, she was already known as an influential literary critic. Her second novel, Stella Descending was published in 2001 and her third novel Grace was published in 2002. For Grace Linn Ullmann received the literary award The Reader’s Prize in Norway and Grace was named one of the top ten novels that year by the prestigious newspaper Weekendavisen in Denmark. In 2007, Grace was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in the United Kingdom, and in March the same year, the Norwegian theater Riksteatret played a successful run of the theatrical play Grace, based on the novel.
Ullmann’s fourth novel A Blessed Child was published in Norway the fall of 2005, and it was shortlisted for the prestigious Norwegian literature prize – the Brage Prize. In 2007, she was awarded the Amalie Skram Award for her literary work, and she received Gullpennen (the Golden Pen) for her journalism in Norway’s leading morning newspaper Aftenposten. In 2008, A Blessed Child was named Best Translated novel in the British newspaper The Independent, and in 2009 the novel was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in the UK. Linn Ullmann’s novels are published throughout Europe and the United States and are translated into 30 languages.
Jens Bjoerneboe
Bjørneboe's early work was poetry, and his first book was Poems (Dikt, 1951), consisting mainly of deeply religious poetry.
Bjørneboe wrote a number of socially critical novels. Among those were Ere the Cock Crows (Før Hanen Galer, 1952), Jonas (1955) and The Evil Shepherd (Den Onde Hyrde, 1960). Ere the Cock Crows is a critique of the (in Bjørneboes' view) harsh post-World-War-II treatment of people viewed to be in any way associated with the Nazis (among those Norwegian writer and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Knut Hamsun). Jonas deals with injustices and shortcomings of the school system and The Evil Shepherd with the Norwegian prison system.
His most central work is by many considered to be the trilogy The History of Bestiality, consisting of the novels Moment of Freedom (Frihetens Øyeblikk, 1966), Powderhouse (Kruttårnet, 1969) and The Silence (Stillheten, 1973).
Bjørneboe also wrote a number of plays, among those were The Bird Lovers (Fugleelskerne, 1966), Semmelweis (1968) and Amputation (Amputasjon, 1970), where he cooperated with Eugenio Barba and the Danish theatre ensemble Odin Teatret.
In 1967, he was convicted for publishing a novel deemed pornographic, Without a Stitch (Uten en tråd, 1966), which was confiscated and banned in Norway. The trial, however, made the book a huge success (in foreign languages), and Bjørneboe's financial problems were (for a period) solved. His last major work was the novel The Sharks (Haiene, 1974).
After having struggled with depression and alcoholism for a long time, he committed suicide by hanging on May 9, 1976.
