Norway and Nesbø

Abstract

Those fortunate enough to have encountered the Scandinavian crime writer Jo Nesbø on his visits to Albion have observed his understated, rather British humour and laser-like awareness of everything happening around him — the defining traits, in fact of his tenacious policeman DI Harry Hole (pronounced ‘Hurler’). Novels such as The Devil’s Star (2005 [2003]), The Redbreast (2006 [2000]) and (notably) his imposing 2007 novel The Snowman (2010) have propelled Nesbø to stratospheric heights — and have made him the most likely inheritor of the Larsson crown in Nordic crime fiction — but apart from the sheer narrative nous, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues. But that’s perhaps inevitable, given the author’s very varied background. At 17, he made his debut in the premier league football team Molde, and dreamt of a glorious future at Tottenham. But when he tore ligaments in both knees, Nesbø realised that his future lay elsewhere. He decided to try music, and succeeded — massively: his band’s second album was Norway’s best-selling album for several years. Finally, though, on a thirty-hour flight to Sydney, he began to write about detective Harry Hole.