Best Norwegian writers or novels set in Norway?

February 19, 2023 10:58 AM

I found out I am part Norwegian and I love to read all kinds of literature from different cultures. I am wondering if there are any solid Norwegian writers to recommend or books/poetry set in Norway? I am open to any genre as long as it is well written and engaging to read -- be it classic or modern.
posted by RearWindow to Writing & Language (18 answers total)

The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset fits the bill if you're all interested in medieval-era fiction.
posted by jquinby at 11:18 AM on February 19, 2023 [6 favorites]

Olav Hauge's works both poems and journals; best single volume probably is Luminous Spaces. I discovered him when reading Knausgaard's My Struggle, which I expect you have on your radar already.
posted by diodotos at 11:33 AM on February 19, 2023

Jo Nesbø writes great mystery/crime novels.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:49 AM on February 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ibsen.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:51 AM on February 19, 2023

I really enjoyed Naive.Super many years ago.
posted by derrinyet at 11:55 AM on February 19, 2023

Norwegian literature
posted by TheRaven at 12:04 PM on February 19, 2023

My friend loves the Varg Veum mysteries and especially loves the movie adaptations of them. (I haven’t read the books but I do love the films.)
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:36 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas.

Or if you've plenty of time on your hands you might try Jon Fosse's Septology or Karl Ove Knausgård's My Struggle.
posted by misteraitch at 12:49 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Henrik Ibsen. I studied Hedda Gabler and was not a big fan, but that may be because University English can make anything tedious. Still, Ibsen is, so far as I know, the big figure in Norwegian literature. As an added bonus you can read Peer Gynt and listen to Greig's music, which is brilliant.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 1:07 PM on February 19, 2023

The Alberta Trilogy by Cora Sandel
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
posted by mani at 1:09 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Came to recommend Jon Fosse. Septology, Trilogy, or Aliss at the Fire. They're all great.

Knausgaard's also good but not as good imo.
posted by dobbs at 1:09 PM on February 19, 2023

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Karl Ove Knausgard series. Some people love it, some hate it. I found the first 3 books intensely engaging and then could not read another word and never wanted to go back into his head again. But it's been the biggest global literary splash out of Norway in the 21st Century.
Oops, on edit, didn't see the answer right above me!
posted by ojocaliente at 2:14 PM on February 19, 2023

Sophie's World
posted by bearette at 5:51 PM on February 19, 2023

Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth is great. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. Knut Hamsun won the Nobel Prize and his book Hunger is good, but he was pretty friendly with the Nazis. Nthing Ibsen, Knausgaard and Nesbo. Theres also that guy Buttigieg loves who I have never read.
posted by pynchonesque at 9:16 PM on February 19, 2023

Anne Holt, onetime Minister of Justice for Norway, writes good crime novels, all set in Norway. The Hanne Wilhelmsen series is complete at ten novels (although note that there was a long gap before the last two, and they're noticeably bleaker in tone) and the Johanne Vik & Adam Stubo series is complete at five. She's currently writing the Selma Falck series, with three so far. I don't think you particularly need to read any of them in order, although reading later books first is liable to spoil the odd plot point in the earlier ones.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:08 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Per Petterson, for sure: Out Stealing Horses, I Refuse.
Dag Solstad writes about stressed people coming unglued (Shyness and Dignity). Professor Andersen's Night is a kind of murder mystery. Solstad is possibly Norway's most acclaimed living author.
And Sigrid Undset is great. After Kristin Lavransdatter, if you want more medieval settings, try her Hestviken tetrology, beginning with The Axe (also has other titles in translation).
posted by CCBC at 5:00 PM on February 20, 2023

Roy Jacobsen's Barrøy Chronicles (which started as a trilogy and now include a fourth book, to be published in English this spring) are set among the islands in the north of Norway during the years leading up to and following World War II. The first book, The Unseen, can stand alone as a coming-of-age novel about the last moment when the islanders felt like they were living at some remove from the wider world. (The second and third books pick up during the war and its aftermath and begin to feel more like a series, with a sort of cliffhanger between the second and third books.)

Seconding Vigdis Hjorth—Long Live the Post Horn! is a crash course in Norway's resistance to the EU's 2008 Third Postal Services Directive. It follows a disaffected PR worker who decides to throw her effort behind the postal union's campaign to get the Norwegian Labor Party to veto the directive. It gets into the nitty-gritty of organizing and votes, but in a way that I thought really captured the kind of optimism that campaigns can draw out of people.
posted by Anita Bath at 8:16 AM on February 21, 2023

Hamsun’s Hunger, as mentioned above, and Growth of the Soil.
posted by notyou at 10:17 AM on February 22, 2023