Blog Archives

Aliss at the Fire

Posted on 28 February 2024 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 2 Comments

When a Nordic neighbour wins a Nobel, it’s nice to take notice. So last autumn at a book fair, nestling among the Rosebuds, I spotted Jon Fosse, in a deep Fitzcarraldo (Norwegian flag cross?) blue cover, with a gold sticker…

Unquiet

Posted on 1 April 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

When you lose someone, you try to hold onto them. You might wear their old clothes (and they might be rather too big). You might read things they’ve written (even if it’s just underlining or marginal notes in books they’ve…

Tagged with: books, death, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Linn Ullmann, Liv Ullmann, Norway, Norwegian, Thilo Reinhard, Translation
Posted in books, translation

Love

Posted on 10 April 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

This PEN award winner is indeed about love, and distance. I haven’t read such a desperately sad story for a long, long time. Like Romeo and Juliet, it’s the just-too-lateness of it all that is the most tragic. But this…

Tagged with: Archipelago Books, books, Hanne Ørstavik, Love, Martin Aitken, Norwegian, PEN Literary Award, Translation
Posted in books, translation

The House in Norway

Posted on 15 August 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The artist has her own house, and feels invaded when other people move in – how is she going to work, now? Nordic people need their space, and women need room of their own to create. The forest grows right…

Knausgaard: which translation?

Posted on 15 July 2015 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Knausgård’s Min Kamp/My Struggle series are a publishing sensation and I had to see what all the fuss was about. Not being able to read them in Norwegian, I had a choice of four translations to choose from: English, Polish, German…