Norway’s undisputed crime queen celebrates 70 years and 50 years as an author

Photo credit: Gesamtwerk

This month marks Norway’s undisputed crime queen turning 70. Over the past fifty years, Karin Fossum has gained recognition from critics and readers as an author in a number of genres. On the occasion of the anniversary, Cappelen Damm is publishing a newly written essay in which Fossum gives an insight into her own writing for the first time.

“My fervent interest in criminals and crime arose when, as a child, I watched ‘Dagsrevyen’ (Daily Review) on a black and white television set. I had been a child for a few years, and the radio was the center of my passion when it came to music and exciting stories.” That’s how Karin Fossum starts her essay Den redde morderen – Forbrytelsen og skriften (The rescuedmurderer – Crime and scripture).

“People fascinate me because even the most intelligent, the smartest, the most brilliant intellectual, the most muscular, toughest man, everyone who is supreme in their field, also has a space inside where all the emotions lie, and many of them are like children, with vulnerability, insecurity, anxiety and fear of rejection,”

says Karin Fossum.

Debuted at the age of twenty

Karin Fossum was born in Sandefjord in 1954. She made her debut in 1974 with the poetry collection Kanskje i morgen (Perhaps Tomorrow) and has since published many books in various genres: poems, short stories and novels. According to Fossum, the journey she has taken from the age of twenty to the present day has been full of developments and changes at all levels of our industry.

“When I was doing interviews as a twenty-year-old, no journalists asked whether I preferred cod to salmon, beer or wine, or what my guilty pleasure was. Today, we have to do in-depth interviews. To put it another way: Who are you really?”

Today, many authors also make their debuts much later. Is there anything she wishes twenty-year-old Karin had known that she knows now?

Competing with yourself

“I would have said to myself when I was twenty: Congratulations on your debut. But know that you haven’t reached the finish line by any means. You’ve just been given a starting quota for the race called ‘Life as a writer’,” says Karin Fossum.

Something funny that she likes to think about is that not even a Nobel Prize winner has more than twenty-nine letters at their disposal. (Note: The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters)

“Every time you enter the competition with a new text, you do so together with many others, many of whom are more talented than you and more important than you, and perhaps stronger and bolder, and most of whom you will never be able to catch up with. But don’t look to the right or the left, because in this race you’re only competing with yourself, and you shouldn’t look at others, or look ahead towards the goal, only inside yourself, and what is your private writing space – which no one else has anything like.”

No such thing as plot-driven

Fossum’s crime novels featuring Sergeant Konrad Sejer have been a hit around the world, with Bakom synger døden (Death sings behind) from 2020 being the latest in the series. In 2021, Fossum introduced a new investigator in Drepende drage, angrende hund (Killing Dragon, Repenting Dog): the energetic and unconventional Eddie Fever who solves cases in his own way.

Where many authors are plot-driven, Karin Fossum’s writing life unfolds differently. The crime is a pretext for writing about people.

“All of the eight billion people, who all know what their outcome is, and who know that it’s getting closer every day. But who still get up and do their duty, and fall in love and have children, and who struggle daily with all the challenges of humanity. And who know that we will lose absolutely everything,” says Karin Fossum, and adds:

“Even in the smallest, most insignificant existence, a great person may be hiding. A hero, an angel. Or a murderer. The eight billion is a treasure trove, and for a writer, all you have to do is help yourself.”

Literary awards

1974 Tarjei Vesaas’ debutant prize for the poetry collection Kanskje i morgen

1997 The Riverton Prize and the Glass Key for best Scandinavian crime novel for Se deg ikke tilbake!

1997 Bokhandlerprisen for Den som frykter ulven

2000 Brage Prize in “Open Class” for Elskede Poona

2002 Svenska Deckarakademin named Black Seconds the year’s best crime novel translated into Swedish

2005 Nominated forThe Golden Dagger, the international award for crime fiction

2008 The Los Angeles Book Award for the English translation of Elskede Poona

2013 The Amalie Skram Prize

2014 The Riverton Prize for Helvetesilden

2020 Riksmålsprisen for Bakom synger døden

2021 Bøkekrimprisen for Bakom synger døden

Fossum’s books have been published in 35 countries, and a number of them have been adapted into films. Saga Egmont will publish Fossum’s new series featuring the fascinating character of Eddie Feber, in Sweden, Germany, and Denmark as e-books, print books, audiobooks, and print-on-demand format in 2024-2026.