Xiania is a burlesque, snappy and vivid feminist novel set in Oslo (then Christiania), 1922. Klara is 19, a housemaid, and pregnant after a very forgettable evening in a woodshed. After a nearly fatal attempt at self-induced abortion, Klara goes to a doctor who hands her a note with an address in the capital, Christiania (Xiania), and the password SOMETHINGELSE. Klara arrives to find a hat shop, believed to be a brothel, which in reality is an undercover cellar abortion clinic run by the mysterious Madame Zavarella. Klara gets the abortion and falls into a six-week-long half-coma, after almost dying from blood poisoning. When Klara is back on her feet, Madam Zarvella suggests that Klara stays. Klara, feeling she owes Madam Zarvella her life, accepts.
This marks the beginning of a whirlwind of events and characters. The rent Klara pays at Madame Zavarella is shockingly high, but is more than covered by the salary from the job she helps Klara get: A housing post with the bohemian and well-off Freddie. Klara enters the strange and fascinating milieus of 1920’s Xiania: Revolutionary communists, the bourgeouise and booze smugglers, from late-night dancing in the marble halls of Hotel Bristol, to the stinking sewage worker strikes in the burrough of Vaterland. And before she knows it, Klara finds herself entangled in affairs she never could have foreseen.
Xiania 1: Klara is the first book in this forthcoming trilogy, written in a fresh, snarky and contemporary tone.
“Not only does the author have a keen eye and a sensitive nose for the less appealing sides the urban life, she also has a downright poetic approach to the hedonism and zest that is often associated with the roaring 20’s …”
Vinduet
“Xiania 1 is an unusually charming novel … more than anything it’s a story with great drive, told with bounce in its language.”
NRK
Genre: Fiction Category: Novel (Vol. I in a trilogy) Publisher: Cappelen Damm Year: 2023 Pages: 320 ISBN: 9788202798437
English sample translation available
Siri Helle had long dreamed of her own potatoes and vegetables, trees and animals, but purchase contracts, bank loans, and the prospect of seeing only the same view every day scared her. As an adult, she has moved more than 30 times.
But one day, Siri Helle takes the big leap and moves back home to the village where she grew up. She and her husband buy a house, an outbuilding, and almost two acres of land in a clustered garden. She plans on living here forever. But can she find peace?
Siri gives herself one year. One year to find out if she fits this life, if she can say she is satisfied with having moved back to her home village. She carves, grows, hunts, fishes, and makes two- and four-legged friends. Her feelings range from dark despair to flashes of ecstatic happiness. This is a story about a home and about the joy of work, but it is also a love story. It is about being two people working together on a tremendous project. What new possibilities open when you close all doors except one?
‘This is a delightful and timely book about resilience and environmental care (…) This story of ingenuity and determination is an inspirational read for anyone keen to explore how they can live a more self-sufficient life’. – Clare Hunter, author of Threads of Life, About Handmade
‘If you’re only going to read one book this year about re-establishing yourself in the village where you grew up, it has to be this one. (…) All of these trendy terms – sustainability, locally sourced, recyling, circular economy, and so on – are all tested here on a very specific Western Norwegian reality.’
Aren’t they supposed to have more, I remember thinking. They were from here after all, Norwegian-Norwegians – shouldn’t they own stuff? All the stuff I saw other people’s parents and grandparents owning. Shouldn’t they have the same stuff? Not even a cabin? At least one without any electricity or water in a place where no one else wants a cabin, like in the middle of the woods. They didn’t even have that. I asked my mother about it. She looked annoyed. All she said was, ‘That’s just how it turned out.’
A man is visiting his father, who is moving to Pakistan. His father doesn’t want to grow old in Norway and his small apartment needs to be emptied.
The chore awakens memories from the man’s own childhood and youth, thoughts about his relationship with his own children, and reflections on his parents’ story – a story that began long before he was born. What are they really leaving behind?
They Call Me The Wolf is a wise and moving examination of culture, history, family, identity and masculinity. It’s a novel about being a man from two countries, about having a mother from Finnmark and a father from Pakistan. It’s about being a parent, about the housing market, and about childhood. And it’s about survival and being hungry like a wolf.
‘Outstanding storyteller!’
Guri Hjeltnes, VG
‘They Call Me the Wolf will remain a work of reference in Nordic literature for many years to come.’
Esthi Kunz, Gutkind
‘The touch and gaze in They Call Me the Wolf assure the reader that this authorship has much more to offer in the future.’
Bernhard Ellefsen, Morgenbladet
Photo: Erika Hebbert
Zeshan Shakar (b. 1982) grew up in Oslo. He holds a degree in political science and also studied economics at BI Norwegian Business School. Shakar has worked in various government ministries and directorates and currently works at Oslo City Hall. For his first novel, Tante Ulrikkes Street (2017), he was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas Debutant Prize. The book sold over 150,000 copies. His second novel, Yellow Book, was released in 2020.
Shakar received the Oslo City Artist Prize and the Neshorn (Rhinoceros) Prize. In 2022, he was nominated for LO’s Literature Prize for Workers’ Literature. For They Call Me the Wolf (2022) he was awarded The Bookseller’s Prize
Foreign rights
Denmark (Gutkind), Sweden (Bazar/Bonnier)
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag 2022
240 Pages
ISBN: 9788205566385 English sample translation available
https://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Zeshan-Shakar.png9241640Berithhttps://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/nks_weblogo.pngBerith2023-07-13 17:20:012023-08-26 09:58:46Zeshan Shakar – They Call me the Wolf // De kaller meg ulven
A cold case heats up as the body of a young woman is found in the forest. She’s been killed and dismembered in a manner that’s eerily reminiscent of serial killer Tom Kerr’s signature m.o. But Kerr is currently serving his fourth year behind bars and couldn’t possibly have committed the murder. Everything points instead to the man the press named The Other – Kerr’s never-found partner.
Adrian Stiller prepares a reconstruction in which Kerr will lead the police to the remains of an old victim. The grave is in Eftang and Wisting is put in charge of security. His daughter Line has been recruited to document it all. But the reconstruction goes terribly wrong and when Kerr escapes, Wisting suddenly finds himself being made the scapegoat as both Kerr and The Other are free once more.
Pure evil in a solid Wisting crime novel. /…./ Jørn Lier Horst delivers credible crime fiction as always. Verdens Gang, Norway
Pure evil in a solid Wisting crime novel. /…./ Jørn Lier Horst delivers credible crime fiction as always.
As a young woman, Åsta Petersen-Cooper left Norway with a desire to put her former life behind her. She brimmed with dreams of an international lifestyle of language, literature and fascinating conversations, and of a happiness in which she could both love and be loved. She’s now 73, living in Warsaw, and in a faltering marriage with a British diplomat. She suffers a stroke which seriously impairs her ability to speak. All she’s left with is the Norwegian of her childhood, which no one around her understands, and far too much time to wonder why life never turned out the way it was meant to.
A Minute’s Silence is a novel about recognition and identity, about which memories live within us and which ones disappear, and about wanting to escape from your own background – and perhaps also from yourself.
‘Captivating! (…) Following Cecilie Enger’s writings is a joy, this time she delivers a moving novel with characters we believe in and a story that draws us in. (…) well written, well thought through, a fascinating universe well executed.’
VG, 5 out of 6 stars
‘Cecilie Enger writes compellingly about the despair, anger and bitterness of losing one’s grasp of language and one’s ability to speak.’
Dagbladet, 5 out of 6 stars
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag 2023
192 Pages
ISBN: 9788205577077 English sample translation available
https://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/6.png9241640Berithhttps://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/nks_weblogo.pngBerith2023-05-22 06:34:542023-06-24 15:23:30Cecilie Enger – A Minute’s Silence // Ett minutts stillhet
It takes 40 weeks to grow a human baby. Along the way, the relationship between the foetus and the pregnant woman bears resemblance to that of a parasite and its host. One takes and takes, while the other continue to give, risking their health in the process.
Anna Blix takes the reader on a personal, investigative, and deeply fascinating journey through each of the 40 weeks in a human pregnancy. Parallelly, for each week, we meet other creatures who have just delivered their next generation into the world. The bacteria E. coli has multiplied by two within 20 minutes. An Eastern grey kangaroo is pregnant for just 5 weeks before giving birth to a baby the size of a bean, which then crawls into its pouch to grow. And the birds with the longest incubation period of all, the wandering albatross, is done with their incubation period after only 10 weeks.
Why do we as humans carry our babies inside our bodies for so long, and is there a reason that we are throwing up and feeling nauseous? Are there any better ways to reproduce? And does any living creature reproduce in a stranger way than us humans?
This book gives evolutionary comfort throughout the troubles of pregnancy, and an explanation as to how we ended up here: as the smartest species with the most tiresome, but nonetheless not such a bad way to reproduce.
Cappelen Damm 2023 – Due Medio April
276 Pages
ISBN: 9788202774479
https://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AnnaBlix-1.png9241640Berithhttps://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/nks_weblogo.pngBerith2023-04-16 22:19:292023-05-29 16:15:26Anna Blix – 40 uker. En menneskegraviditet og 81 andre måter å få barn på
Tiden 2022
267 Pages
ISBN: 9788210058219 English sample translation available
The talented surgeon Henrik Wold has organized his life around his career and is now aiming for the department’s chief position. Life is quite simple for Henrik – until a young patient develops inexplicable complications after a standard procedure. For the first time in his professional life, he feels insecure, and the pressure evolves around him, both at work and at home. What happens when someone who pictures himself as invincible makes a mistake? What is revealed when the façade starts to crack? When does the surgeon’s pragmatic cynicism turn into destructiveness? And what is a human life worth?
With a brilliant take on human psychology, and a trained eye for comic interactions, Ida Hegazi Høyer takes us along on a two-week downhill journey in Henrik Wold’s life.
Nominated for the Listeners’ Novel Prize 2022
‘A razor-sharp portrait of a young surgeon’s crushing fall.’
Dagsavisen
‘Hardly have I seen weirder, more delicious sentences on a book page this past year.’
Klassekampen
‘… teeming with phrases so precise that they shine like bright steel.’
Dag og Tid
‘A highlight this year.’
Morgenbladet
Ida Hegazi Høyer (b. 1981) made her debut in 2012 with the novel Under the World and quickly became a leading voice in contemporary Norwegian literature. In 2015 she was named one of Norway’s 10 most promising young writers by the newspaper Morgenbladet. In 2016, her novel Forgive Me won the EU Prize of Literature. She is the author of 7 novels and one collection of stories. Her books have been translated into 11 languages. The Surgeon was nominated for the Listeners’ Novel Prize 2022.
Foreign rights
Danish (Straarup & co.)
Rights
Oslo Literary Agency
Henrik Francke
henrik@osloliteraryagency.no
www.osloliteraryagency.no
Audr means wealth. It was a common name for women in the Viking age, emphasising their importance in society. They were poets, skilled artisans and entrepreneurs who had their own ships. Women traded, led expeditions and played a crucial role in sharing knowledge, educating and protecting societal values. It was women who were responsible for textile manufacture and the preparation and storage of food, in addition to their important duties as healers.
In this book, we follow Aud the Deep-Minded, a rural Norwegian woman, on a 4,000 kilometre journey throughout her life, from her childhood in Norway to her adulthood in Ireland, Scotland and the Hebrides and her old age in Iceland. Kim Hjardar uses Aud’s story as a prism. How can we consider the role of women and the opportunities available to them in the Viking period?
Women in the Viking Age offers a journey of discovery through a history that has been overlooked. Through engaging writing and thought-provoking illustrations of both reconstructions and archaeological finds, the book provides a fascinating insight into the lives of Viking women.
Kim Hjardar (b. 1966) has an MPhil in Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture studies from the University of Oslo, and works as a Lector of History at St. Hallvard College. He is a former head of Norway’s oldest and biggest association for living history re-enactments of the Viking period. Hjardar has published many books about the Vikings, among them Vikings at War (Vikinger i krig), 2011/2017, with Vegard Vike. The book was awarded the Saga Prize in 2012. This major and well-received work has been sold to Denmark, France, the UK, Spain and Sweden.
Hjardar’s works also include Vikings – Raiders from the Sea (Casemate 2017) and The Vikings’ Greatest Battles (Vikingenes største slag), 2020. Ha has also participated in several TV documentaries. Among them: Travel Channel´s Legend of the Lost with Megan Fox and National Geographic’s newest show, Vikings – The Rise and Fall.
Foreign rights
Denmark
Rights
HAGENAGENCY by Eirin Hagen
Lindemans gate 3 D
NO-0267 Oslo
Tel: +47 22 46 52 54
Mob: +47 93 41 10 56
post@hagenagency.no
www.hagenagency.no
https://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Kim-Hjardar-1.png9241640Berithhttps://www.norgesklubben.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/nks_weblogo.pngBerith2023-02-28 18:47:182024-01-28 11:06:02Kim Hjardar Auðr – Women in the Viking Age
Sommerferieplanene blir nok også i år kortreiste for mange av oss. Og hva kan vel være bedre enn å bruke lange, late dager på å enkelt forflytte seg til nye steder og opplevelser – gjennom litteraturen?
Her deler vi som jobber i NORLA tips om et utvalg gode bøker, og ønsker både god sommer og riktig god lesning!
Ellen anbefaler:
Frode Grytten Gut, jente, juni, juli Noveller
Forlaget Oktober, 2021
Frode Grytten har skrevet nydelige noveller om bading, sommer og forelskelse! Absolutt verdt å lese (på stranda) nå i sommer.
Man angrer aldri på et bad, ei heller å lese denne boka.
God sommer!
Sommerferie er sluketid, lesetid, sommertid, badetid. Ruth Lillegraven holder deg våken enten du ligger i hengekøya eller i solsengen, og Clara Lofthus er like fengslende som skremmende i Av mitt blod, den frittstående og like vellykkede oppfølgeren til thrillerdebuten Alt er mitt.
Dette er nytelsesrik sommerlesing i et velformulert, godt språk.
Jan Erik Vold Mor Godhjertas glade versjon. Ja
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1968
For ikke så lenge siden fikk jeg ny adresse: Mor Godhjertas vei. Og da måtte jeg jo skaffe meg en klassiker i norsk poesi:
Jan Erik Vold: Mor Godhjertas glade versjon. Ja.
Det er den fineste diktsamlingen jeg vet om! Livsglad, usentimental, sanselig og klok. Jeg tror ikke jeg vil si så mye mer enn det nå, bare gi dere en smakebit. Denne hyllesten til furukongler passer for eksempel så fint nå som det er sommer og vi skal gå barbeint i gresset:
Furukonglesang
Hvem vil høre
furukonglesang? Ja for furukonglesang
er en sang for den andre rasen
av ting, de vennlige små, gjerne forbisette
mennesker og ting, baktalte
unevnte, et lite slag i luften for sykkelreparatørene
melkedamene, enkeltsokkene
småskruene, de mislykkede
samleier og alle landets furukongler strødd rundt
i gresset, ja – for jeg liker furukongler,
jeg liker furukongler bedre
enn grankongler, grankongler er glatte og hengende,
strømlinjeformede, de minner om
tunge ting, ting som skal falle, kjønnsorganer og
glatt administrasjon, furukongler
minner om barkebåter, fiskedupper og små
kjønnsorganer, som hos gamle
menn – eller etter en dukkert, furukonglenes lett sprikende skjell
ligger som takstein på gamle hus, der folk
har bodd lenge og ikke akter legge nytt
tak, ikke i deres tid, glisne
rorbuer, rynkene rundt øyne som har sett mye
uten å slukne, jeg liker barken på trær, dens mangel
på mønster, flaggstenger som ikke
er nymalte, busskur
der elskende har risset sine navn, dette hjerte
med plusstegn i og den enkleste
addisjon, vårt var visket ut
sist jeg så etter (men er ikke lenger
så sikker på hvilket tre
det egentlig var), jeg brukte ingen kniv bare rød
blyant og det holder jo ikke
Dette er noe så uvanlig som en bokanbefaling av en bok jeg ikke har lest ferdig.
Helene Flood hadde en brakdebut i 2019 med den psykologiske thrilleren Terapeuten. Elskeren tegner til å være minst like spennende som forgjengeren, anslaget er lovende:
Hovedpersonen Rikke lever et vellykket vestkantliv i firemannsbolig på Tåsen i Oslo med ungdomskjæresten Asbjørn og to barn. I etasjen over bor Jørgen og Merethe med sin vakre tenåringsdatter. Idyllen på Tåsen burde være fullkommen, men forstyrres av at drepte katter dukker opp i nabolaget og skaper uhygge. Hvem kan gjøre noe sånt?
Snart skjønner leseren at Rikke og Jørgen har et forhold. En kveld Jørgen er alene hjemme, avtaler de å møtes. Rikke låser seg inn hos ham med ekstranøkkelen som ligger under blomsterpotten i trappen, men lar være å gå inn. Dagen etter ligger Jørgen død i leiligheten…
Så langt har jeg lest – og jeg fortsette så fort jeg har skrevet ferdig denne anbefalingen. God lesing!
Arne Næss Livsfilosofi
Universitetsforlaget, 1998 (nå i 3. utgave)
Filosof, fjellklatrer og miljøaktivist Arne Næss (1912-2009) var en av Norges mest innflytelsesrike intellektuelle etter den annen verdenskrig. Hans bok Livsfilosofi (1998) ble en umiddelbar salgssuksess. Det er ikke en akademisk bok, men en personlig bok om følelsene som et sentralt utgangspunkt for livet. Arne Næss ønsker å få flere mennesker til å ta retningen i sitt liv opp til vurdering og spørre: «Er det dette jeg vil? Er jeg bevisst på at det er akkurat nå jeg lever?» Han favner over mange temaer, men fellesnevneren er hvor viktig begeistring er! En klassiker til glede for nye lesere. Sitat: «Hvis du haster gjennom livet, ser du kanskje målet i det fjerne, men ikke blomstene langs veien».
Noe av det vidunderligste ved å oppdage et nytt boklig univers er å vite at denne boken ikke er slutten, det kommer flere! Jeg ble lykkelig av å vite dette da jeg bare var noen sider inn i Roy Jacobsens De usynlige, som kom i 2013 og var første bok i det som nå er blitt hetende Barrøy-serien. Siden har jeg storkost meg med de neste to bøkene om Ingrid fra Barrøy – og jeg er ikke alene, for bøkene har vekket stor begeistring blant lesere og anmeldere verden over. Første bok er solgt til 28 land, and counting!
Og det som opprinnelig skulle bli en trilogi er altså heldigvis vokst – for i fjor kom bok 4; Bare en mor. Og akkurat denne bonusen har jeg spart til sommerferien! Nå skal jeg snart helt bevisst senke lesehastigheten og nyte i langdrag å være tilbake på Barrøy, blant gamle kjente – og sikkert noen nye personligheter.
Lenge leve reise per bok!
Photo: Erika Hebbert
