FOLLOWS UP SUCCESS: Aslak Nore follows up the bestseller “Havets kirkegård” with the book “Ingen skal drukne” which has been pre-sold to 10 countries before publication – Photo: Frode Hansen / VG
Aslak Nore (45) no longer boasts that he punched a Morgenbladet journalist. In the last year, he has confronted his own aggression and felt the price for the life he has chosen.
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In recent years, Aslak Nore (45) has reflected on the price he has paid for his life – with many years abroad, including as a soldier in Bosnia. He expresses that this life has had greater consequences than he first thought. This week Nore comes out with the book “Ingen skal drukna”, a sequel to the bestseller “Havets kirkegård”, which has sold around 60,000 copies in Norway alone and has been sold to 17 countries . In the book, Nore follows the wealthy Falck family further – and writes about major topics such as Norway’s relationship with Russia, as well as the topic of mysterious cancer deaths among sailors on rescue boats in the Barents Sea during the Cold War. Today – at 45 years old – he reflects on how he himself has appeared and his own aggression. For the first time, he says that he regrets the incident where he hit a journalist from Morgenbladet in 2009. Show more
– It is beginning to dawn on me that all the years abroad, soldier life in Bosnia, all the years I have lived in Latin America, New York, France – and all the journeys to war-torn countries have left their mark.
– I have a strong feeling that this life has had greater consequences than I thought, for better or for worse, says Nore to VG.
He comes straight from the sun in his hometown of Marseille on the French Riviera to the autumn wind in Oslo – where this week he will launch “Ingen skal drukne”. It is the sequel to “Havets kirkegård” which received a roll of 6 in VG and has sold around 60,000 copies in Norway alone.
SIMPLE LIFE: – I have often thought about how life would have been if I had had a family and settled in Norway, says Aslak Nore. Photo: Frode Hansen / VG
The book has been sold to 17 countries – and in France the reviewers have gone bananas.
The reviewer in Le Journal du Dimanche wrote, among other things, that Aslak Nore will surpass Jo Nesbø herself, while Le Point wrote the following about “Havets kirkegård”:
“A fresco painting about family and geopolitics that lies in its darkness between the Millennium saga and Succession … The first volume in a new great Nordic saga?”
– It is absolutely fantastic to experience success in France in particular, a country where books mean so much, says Nore.
He moved to Marseille in 2015 when his then French partner became pregnant.
The daughter is now 8 years old, and is often taken to Norway to go skiing, freeze and eat packed lunches.
– I call it the Norwegian Koran school, laughs Nore.
– The longer I’ve lived abroad, the more important it is to teach her the language and traditions I myself grew up with.
He himself calls it a kind of double life.
FRENCH-NORSE: Aslak Nore was nominated earlier this year for the Grand Prix des lectrices – French Elle’s popular literature prize with the rationale: “A complete writer who knows how to use the entire range of emotions … masterfully.” Photo: Frode Hansen / VG
– That’s really how I’ve lived ever since I finished school. I have a life in Norway and one abroad. Maybe that’s why I’m so fascinated by spy stuff.
– You feel like a double agent?
– Hehe, no, but on an existential level it is similar. I feel like I have two different lives. When I’m here at home, life outside feels very distant, and when I’m in France it’s the opposite.
– It’s not my fault. How bad can it be to live by the sea in Provence? But I don’t think people realize that in many ways it’s a lonely life.
The main characters in the new book face the same dilemmas that Aslak Nore knows.
– And a heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about, smiles Aslak – and adds:
– If I had chosen a simpler life, I could never have written these books.
Lost many friends
Aslak Nore is himself a Balkan veteran and has visited several wars as a journalist and author. In recent years, he has lost several veteran friends, and several have become ill. A topic he also touches on in the new book, where he writes about mysterious cancer deaths among sailors on lifeboats in the Barents Sea during the Cold War.
The book is dedicated to Nore’s friend, the deceased intelligence officer Kjetil A. Hatlebrekke.
– Kjetil died of cancer, other veterans I knew from the same, or heart disease, suicide and accidents. At the end, Kjetil and I talked about how the problems that he and others struggled with were about the sum total of being in stressful environments for a long time.
– When I was 20 years old and went to Bosnia as part of the Telemark battalion – that thought did not cross my mind at all. We thought we were immortal and invulnerable.
– In recent years, I have started to reflect on the price you have paid for the life you have chosen, says Nore.
Hit a journalist
REGRETS: For the first time, Aslak Nore says he regrets hitting a Morgenbladet journalist after a book bath in 2009. Photo: Frode Hansen / VG
In several interviews – also new – he has stated that he does not regret that in 2009 he got Morgenbladet journalist Simen Sætre after a somewhat strange book bath at the Litteraturhuset in Oslo.
– I have been proud of my temperament, and it is my own aggression that has meant that I rarely go down on my knees. That I’m going the last mile, right.
– But in the last year I have gradually been forced to confront my own aggression, and the time when I bragged about that episode at the House of Literature is over.
– I’m not proud of it anymore. I have said that to Simen Sætre as well.
On the whole, Aslak Nore is actually sorry for the way he has appeared – the reason why he was often called arrogant and provocateur.
– I have probably been more reckless than I myself have realized.
– And that kind of thing, it’s something I’ve only thought of as a funny anecdote. Now I want to say it is inappropriate.
– You regret it?
– Yes I do. If I had done it there today, I would probably have been reported.
AT LEAST THREE BOOKS: Aslak Nore is already writing book three in the series about the Falck family – and he has plans for as many as five books. Photo: Frode Hansen / VG
In “Ingen skal drukne” Nore follows the wealthy Falck family further – and he mixes a large family drama with all that goes with inheritance disputes, illegal love and family secrets together with major themes such as Norway’s relationship with Russia, the role of Svalbard – and a whole lot of historically correct events .
– Even I don’t think I’m Tolstoy, begins Nore.
– But as a writer in the entertainment industry, there is something extremely liberating about reading classics such as “War and Peace”. Where the reader is transported from ballrooms to the battlefield, which does not shy away from the big questions of morality and existence. Why do almost no writers dare to do something similar today?
– Having said that, these are big topics that it took me a long time to be able to write about. I couldn’t have been 20 years old and written this, I had to be both son and father to do it.
He believes he got the idea to start this family saga when he held his daughter in his arms for the first time.
– I looked into her eyes and got a strong feeling of staring into eternity. It inspired me to write about family history, family loyalty and discord and inheritance.
Info
Aslak Nore (45)
Aslak Nore (b. 1978) is a writer and publishing editor from Oslo.
Is the son of writer Kjartan Fløgstad and senior physician Anne Kathrine Nore.
Says this about the author’s legacy: – I can never compete with him when it comes to literary weight, but maybe I can sell more books.
Lives in Marseille with her 8-year-old daughter.
Served conscription in the Telemark battalion and served in Bosnia. Has traveled as a journalist among Norwegian and American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Made his debut as an author with “Gud er Norsk” in 2007 and has written both non-fiction and fiction.
Received the Riverton prize in 2017 for the suspense novel “Ulvefellen”
Current with: The sequel to the bestseller “Havets kirkegård (2021)
Has worked as a journalist for a number of newspapers and as an editor in Gyldendal.
Lives in France and Oslo. Has a partner and one child.
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Published: 05.10.23 at 08:42
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2023-10-05 06:42:20
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