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Norway

The covers of the six titles featured in the Watchlist: Beijing Sprawl, Happy Stories, Mostly,...
The Watchlist: June 2023
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends new and forthcoming books in translation from Bolivia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Norway, and Poalnd.
Two log cabins, one with a grass roof, in a field next to the water
I, Argus fin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sharing Stories: A Brief Introduction to Sámi Literary History
By Mathilde Magga
For Sámi literature to continue playing its essential role in our culture and to expand its benefits, we need more writers, readers, and translators, which is impossible without support—both financially and through the education system.
A wolf sleeping in the snow
Christian Pietzsch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Wolfskin
By Risten Sokki
“When the forested valleys in Russia start filling up with snow, the wolf begins its journey from the south toward the plains in the north.”
Translated from North Sámi by Olivia Lasky
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: October 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books in translation from Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Colombia, South Korea, and Norway.
Portraits of Jon Fosse and Damion Searls
Left: Jon Fosse, photo by Tom Kolstad Samlaget; Right: Damion Searls, photo by Beowulf Sheehan
The National Book Award Interviews: Jon Fosse & Damion Searls
By Words Without Borders
“To me writing is an act of listening. And if I am writing well then what I write will necessarily be new to me as well. Writing is a journey into the unknown.”
The Watchlist: January 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books in translation from Mexico, Norway, Haiti, Argentina, and Japan.
A boy wearing a headlamp lies on his stomach on a bunk bed and reads a comic book in the dark
Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash
Corona Is a Ball with Spikes
By Maria Parr
It’s everybody versus corona.
Translated from Norwegian by Guy Puzey
Deceptive Simplicity: International Children’s Literature
By Daniel Hahn
I often feel that adults forget what children’s stories are capable of.
Raur Gives His Blanket a Hug
By Maria Parr
“How am I supposed to be nice when nobody’s nice to me?”
Translated from Norwegian by Guy Puzey
Road Stories: International Writing on Travel
By Susan Harris
Some of the writers here document their own trips, while others invent characters and send them on the road.
Writing Dreams: New Norwegian Literature
By Kari Dickson
Norway is a dream that many people carry.
from Rage
By Monica Isakstuen
What if my rage has filled my core and transformed it?
Translated from Norwegian by Rosie Louise Hedger
The Whale That Blinked
By Andreas Tjernshaugen
In the Antarctic in particular, the blue whale nearly died out.
Translated from Norwegian by Lucy Moffatt
Deciphered Desire
By Rebecca Dinerstein Knight
I soon learned that Norwegians deliver praise in the past tense.
From the Other Side
By Roskva Koritzinsky
What happened next, I will never quite understand.
Translated from Norwegian by Becky Crook
In a Ditch
By Jan Kristoffer Dale
Kenneth felt his seat belt clamp across his chest and his stomach somersaulting as the car careened off the road.
Translated from Norwegian by Bruce Thomson
All the Way Home
By Levi Henriksen
Her face is like a page in a diary that has never been written.
Translated from Norwegian by Diane Oatley
Multimedia
Suburbia
By Linn Strømsborg
I always measured distances in songs. I measured everything in songs.
Translated from Norwegian by Olivia Lasky
I Condemn My Pathetic Heart and Soul
By Mona Høvring
For weeks she had behaved as though she were the only person to have ever had a nervous breakdown.
Translated from Norwegian by Rachel Rankin
Beyond Queer: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
The contributors to our Queer issues produce narratives that elude facile compartmentalization.
The Light Never Reaches Here
By Tina Åmodt
In the wilderness, you live in a simple house, you wake to your beloved’s face, you almost exclusively hear her voice.
Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce
Under
By Merethe Lindstrøm
He was just a face, a hand, and the knife.
Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce
Light
By Gunnhild Øyehaug
Wishes are balloons, Alice said, and death waits with a needle.
Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce
Two reindeer on a rocky ledge with a body of water behind them
Photo by Jørgen Håland on Unsplash
Journey toward the Island
By Laila Stien
Norway’s Laila Stien tracks a group of Sámi herders guiding their reindeer on the seasonal migration to the north, fighting obstacles both natural and man-made.
Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce
An Expansion, a Journey, a Knife
By Kerri Pierce
Each of the stories chosen for this feature presents us with characters in the midst of what are to them life-altering situations.
The Art of Falling
By Inga Sætre
How can anyone predict the future if it's not already mapped out?
Translated by Rosie Louise Hedger
A Telephone Conversation
By Rune Christiansen
You were unique, like / we all are unique.
Translated from Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland
Multilingual
Impromptu
By Rune Christiansen
When the snow covers your grave you have forgotten the snow.
Translated from Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland
Multilingual
The Dogs in Thessaloniki
By Kjell Askildsen
Do you remember the dogs in Thessaloniki which were stuck together after they had mated, she said.
Translated from Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland
Gob
By Lars Saabye Christensen
I saw her again today. She came out from the liquor store in Majorstua, the bottles pushed down into a worn brown bag
Translated from Norwegian by Kenneth Steven
Martin Hansen’s Outing
By Kjell Askildsen
I carried on walking, roaming the streets; it was just half past nine, and I had no desire to go home.
Translated from Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland
From “Black Sky, Black Sea”
By Izzet Celasin
Here and in many other places, İstanbul was preparing for the May Day rallies.
Translated from Norwegian by Kari Dickson
Multilingual
MS Hitra
By Jo Nesbø
Captain Jonasen followed the dotted line in the atlas with his finger.
Translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Multilingual
The Pig
By Lars Saabye Christensen
Asbjørn Hall didn't argue....He'd never argued.
Translated from Norwegian by Kenneth Steven
Dr. Gordeau
By Gaute Heivoll
When the plane has almost come to rest, he sees an angel.
Translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett
How Is One to Hang Up?
By Cathrine Grøndahl
It should be well known that / the voices can be piercing,
Translated from Norwegian by Roger Greenwald
Let the Small Words Come to Me
By Cathrine Grøndahl
Let the small words come to me / Don't let the demanding ones stop them
Translated from Norwegian by Roger Greenwald
From “Out Stealing Horses”
By Per Petterson
We were going out stealing horses.
Translated from Norwegian by Anne Born
Ambulance
By Johan Harstad
I'm lying on my back in the ambulance, firmly strapped to the stretcher and we're driving very fast through town...
Translated from Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik
The Bergkvist Sisters
By Levi Henriksen
I’ve had a lot of time lately, and I’ve been thinking about the King and Queen.
Translated from Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik
Today You Must Pray to God
By Per Petterson
Today you must pray to God, for today a nuclear war will probably break out.
Translated from Norwegian by Anne Born
A living room set in an old theater
Photo by Andreas Bergmann on Unsplash
From “Night Sings Its Songs”
By Jon Fosse
Leading Norwegian playwright and winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature Jon Fosse takes us deep into one fateful night where a young couple tries to reconnect.
Translated from Norwegian by Sarah Cameron Sunde
From “Identity”
By Mansur Rajih
You are paid to be a murderer.
Translated from Norwegian by Ren Powell
The Fatherland
By Mansur Rajih
Yemen is a happy country, / the people die standing tall:
Translated from Norwegian by Ren Powell
Another Sky
By Mansur Rajih
Such is exile / Your bottlenecked bottleneck
Translated from Norwegian by Ren Powell
The Wound
By Mansur Rajih
his finger pointing to his heart
Translated from Norwegian by Ren Powell
Chlorine
By Johan Harstad
“A 3-D portrait of the empathy one stranger experiences on behalf of another.”—Heidi Julavits
Translated from Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik
To
By Johan Harstad
Everyone is vanishing.
Translated from Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik
Waterproof
By Lars Saabye Christensen
Each day that whole summer, apart from the week when she was to learn to swim, Andrea stood at the quay and waited as the Prince drew in to land. It wasn’t the passengers she wanted to see, as they…
Translated from Norwegian by Kenneth Steven