Kjell Askildsen

A winner of the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize, the Brage Prize and twice of the Critics’ Prize Kjell Askildsen (born 1929) is one of the great Norwegian writers of the post-war era and an inescapable reference in contemporary Scandinavian literature. Admired above all for his short stories, Askildsen has cultivated a terse, ascetic style which is an ideal vehicle for his existential themes. Though the world view often seems bleak and disillusioned, there is also humour in his works, albeit of the dark, laconic variety. Daniel Handler asserts, “There is something so beautifully off-kilter about Askildsen’s stories—a luminous peculiarity that reminds us that strange writing is the only true writing about the world.”