Karin Fossum
(born Mathisen) Norwegian female writer, who has published poems, general fiction novels, and crime novels. Her books have, so far, been translated to 16 languages.
Biography Karin Fossum
Karin Fossum was born November 6, 1954 in Sandefjord. She has 2 children (Martin and Vilde). Fossum now lives in Oslo.
Fossum made her literary debut with a collection of poetry in 1974. This was awarded with Tarjei Vesaas' Debutant Prize. Later she has written another book of poetry and two short story collections. Her major break through came with the crime novel about Konrad Sejer Evas øye (Eve's Eye) in 1995. It is an enormously exciting and well crafted crime novel, and displays a tough literary style that grips the reader instantly.
Karin Fossum's writing style is characterized by the way she tends to to sympathize with and seeks to understand the point of view of "the outsider". She is concerned with making the reader understand why the main character or the criminal behaves the way he or she does, and manages - by means of excellent, thorough, and careful character descriptions - to a large extent to do this. Thus the action in her books tend to be character driven: the logic of actions, interactions, and relations among people have a dynamic made understandable to the reader through the characters. As a result, there is always a considerable psychological element present in Fossum's books.
She has previously worked as a sales clerk, taxi driver, and home aid person. She has also worked as a nurse in hospitals, elderly homes, and doing drug rehabilitation work. She draws a lot on her diverse experiences in her writing.
In an interview, she stated the following about her writing:
When it comes to your work, what marks a book's success for you?
That the readers believe in my story. That I have been able to move them.
You've been dubbed Norway's "Queen of Crime." What do you enjoy most about writing crime novels?
The drama. The tragedy. The psychology. The mystery.
Fossum's writing is realistic and believable. And she does move her readers. She has a literary, precise language and is regarded as a gifted writer. Fossum's crime novels have been filmed, the first as a full length feature film, the others as television series. Karin Fossum is always well received - by the critics and the readers.
1. Crime novels by Karin Fossum.
Critically acclaimed across Europe, Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels are masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable.
Fossum's hero, Inspector Sejer, is a smart and enigmatic hero, tough but fair. He is also a somewhat sad hero.
Fossum's crime novels featuring Inspector Sejer have been translated into sixteen languages.
The year in the title headings below refers to the date of publication in Norwegian.
(Not translated to English. Filmed in 2000.) Eva Magnus is an artist and  single mother. Unexpectedly, she meets her childhood friend, Marie Durban. Once, they had been very close and shared everything. Now her friend tells her that she has chosen to become a prostitute - even a very highly paid prostitute.
This happens just on the day when Eva is completely broke, and is standing in front of the shopping mall with an empty wallet and a rather large pile of bills in her hands. She gets into trouble.
Thus the stage is set for inspector Konrad Sejer - Fossum's hero figure, who is introduced in this book. A great introduction, a great book!
Bestill Eva øye fra Bokkilden!
Don't Look Back! (Se deg ikke tilbake!) 1996.
In a sleepy little village at the foot of a Norwegian mountain, a child — 6 year old Ragnhild — goes missing. It is a village where the children run in and out of one another's   houses and play unafraid in the streets. Yet the search for her reveals the naked body of a well-liked local schoolgirl. Why would anyone want to murder Annie Holland? The investigation is in the hands of Inspector Konrad Sejer and his young colleague Jacob Skarre.
This is a wonderful book with great characters, and very carefully written. The dialogue is realistic. It is also a book that gives a strong sense of community and that makes you feel and know that, yeah, this is how is could really have happened. The book is highly recommended to anyone who likes police-procedural novels.
This book received The Riverton Prize and The Glass Key (for the best Nordic detective novel).
Read an excerpt of the book at the Hardcourt publishers' site.
Aftenposten's reviewer said the book "has hit the bull's eye. It has scored a direct hit and is an exceptional top score! This is a dazzling writing in the crime genre".
"Don't Look Back! shows just how well Fossum deserves her continental fame." -- Sunday Times
Bestill boken på norsk fra Bokkilden!
He Who Fears the Wolf (Den som frykter ulven), 1997.
Shortly after a schizophrenic, named Errki, escapes from a nearby mental institution, an elderly woman, Halldis Horn, is found murdered,  her body lying across the steps of her small home. But there is a witness, an overweight boy who lives in a group home, Kannick Snellingen. Kannick hastily informs local law enforcement, and Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer is called to investigate the crime but gets sidetracked by a bank robbery/hostage situation that occurs moments after Sejer notices a suspicious character entering the bank.
A focal point in the book is the strange relationship between the bank robber, who takes Errki as a hostage, and Errki. This relationship is quite dynamic, beautifully described, and lends a lot of drive to the book.
This is a great book, a masterpiece, that gave Fossum The Booksellers' Prize in Norway.
Bestill Den som frykter ulven fra Bokkilden.
When the Devil Holds the Candle (Djevelen holder lyset), 1998.
(This book won the Gumshoe award for best European crime novel published in the US in 2007.) When the theft of a purse from a stroller results in an infant's death, two teenagers are in trouble. Unaware of the enormity of their crime,  Zipp and Andreas are intent on committing still another. They follow an elderly woman, Irma Funder, home, and Andreas enters her house with his ever-reliable switchblade. Motionless in the dark, Zipp waits for his friend to come out. However, he will never see him alive again.
Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant's death and the reported disappearance of a local delinquent. And so, while the confusion in the world outside mounts, the chilling truth unfolds inside the old woman's home.
Unflappable as ever, Sejer digs below the surface of small-town tranquility in an effort to understand how and why violence destroys everyday lives. Another brilliantly observed, precisely rendered psychological mystery from the highly acclaimed Karin Fossum, where she creates intensity by problematizing the roles of murderer and victim.
Bestill Djevelen holder lyset på norsk fra Bokkilden.
Calling out for You (Elskede Poona), 2000.
 (NB: Published in the US as The Indian Bride.) This is the fifth crime novel featuring Sejer, for which Karin Fossum was nominated for the British Gold and Silver Dagger Award in 2005.
The first part of the book tells the somewhat tragic and sad story of the events that transpire when the rather unremarkable Gunder Jomann, a middle-aged bachelor in a remote Norwegian village, decides to go on holiday to India to find a wife. The descriptions of the ensuing events are told in a very moving way. The author is truly gifted at making the reader care about her unglamorous characters.
Jomann does indeed find a wife, and returns as a married man. But on the day his Indian bride is due to join him, he is called to the hospital to his sister's bedside. The local taxi driver that is sent instead to meet the bride at the airport, returns without her. Then the town is shocked by the news of an Indian woman found bludgeoned to death in a nearby meadow.
Now Sejer and his colleague Skarre are called in. They eventually piece together the story that the reader knows from the first few chapters, and the story becomes one of narrowing down the suspects from the village community and trying to obtain a confession from the chief suspect.
Praise: «Calling out for You is Fossum's fifth police novel featuring detectives Sejer and Skarre. Not only the definite highlight of the season, it is in my view among the best Norwegian crime novels ever written. ...a well-written and disturbing novel, a tale that would stand fast even without the element of crime.»
Dagbladet
Bestill Elskede Poona fra Bokkilden!
Black Seconds (Svarte sekunder), 2002.
In 2002 Karin Fossum published her sixth Sejer novel. The plot in this book revolves around a child, Ida Joner, that disappears. she rides out on her yellow bike to buy some sweets. When she fails to return 35 minutes after she should have, her mother Helga starts to worry. She starts   phoning around, but nobody has seen her. She scours the streets to no avail. So eventually she calls the police.
The next day a local search is organized, but without result. Ida Joner and her yellow bicycle seem to have vanished into thin air. As the relatives reach breaking point and the media frenzy begins, Inspector Sejer is calm and reassuring. But he finds the case puzzling. Usually missing children are found within forty-eight hours. Ida Joner seems to have vanished without a trace. Eventually, all he has to go on is a comment has feels may be significant. This is the most traditional police procedural Fossum has produced so far.
The book deals with an crime that could happen anywhere. Karin Fossum tells a story of unfortunate confluences of events, accidental occurrences, and opportunities. The path is rich with scenes, characters, and explorations of how people think, and why they make the choices they do. Even so, nothing is certain, the characters are as large as life, and the scenarios so believable. Black Seconds is a powerful, impressive, probing and intriguing novel, almost as good as Calling out for You.
Bestill Svarte Sekunder fra Bokkilden!
The Murder of Harriet Krohn (Drapet på Harriet Krohn), 2004.
Charles Olav Torp is in a desperate situation. He has lost everything, including his daughter Julia, and has a large gambling debt, and a loan shark wanting his money. There is only one solution available to him, he  feels. He has to rob Harriet Krohn, get away with it, pay his debts, and then buy a horse to his daughter. If it works out, he will be able to get his life back on track and can try to win his Julia back as well.
But Harriet Krohn resists him. And while Charles walked to her house as a robber-in-spe, he returns as a murderer. At first he is ashamed and scared, but then he regains his self confidence.
Inspector Sejer is assigned the case. Before long, he has his first conversation with Charles. Many more will follow.
This is a crime novel where the murderer is in focus from page one. It is not a whodunit crime story. We know that already from the beginning. Nor is it a novel where the technical work of the police is focused - it in a sense is more a book about a person, Charles, and his circumstances and psychology, than a crime novel in a more classical sense. The book is written from the perspective of the murderer. We get to see the false sense of security of the murderer while the police is closing in, we experience his swings and turns.
It is a wonderful book - a deep psychological study, very intense, which tells us about love, evil, and brutality. Fossum takes us on a guided tour - and I am not quite sure she takes us back to where we started from. But that's quite ok.
Bestill Drapet på Harriet Krohn fra Bokkilden!
He who loves something else (Den som elsker noe annet) (2007)
Karin Fossum’s eighth book in the Inspector Sejer series. A middle aged couple on their usual Sunday walk in the woods find the body of a small boy lying at the foot of a tree. He has a T-shirt on, but is naked from the waist down.
 Inspector Konrad Sejer and his assistant Jacob Skarre arrive at the scene
of the crime and find out that the little boy is eight-year-old Jonas August
Løwe. The couple had seen a man on the track in the woods.
Their descriptions of the man varied slightly, but the woman, Kristine,said that he
looked like H.C. Andersen, the famous Danish writer. It also turns out the boy has been sexually abused.
Sejer and Skarre contact all the known pedophiles in the area, they
interview the children at the school, the parents and teachers, but they
don’t get anywhere. Things get worse when another boy disappears.
Another great book from Karin Fossum. The only thing I did not like about it was that Fossum was a little too eager to impart on her readers all her knowledge about the subject of pedophilia. It almost feels as if she has problems distancing herself from the subject.
However, a great read and highly recommended!
Bestill Den som elsker noe annet fra Bokkilden!
2. Other books by Karin Fossum
I et annet lys (1992)
This is a collection of short stories. It has not been translated to English, and is currently difficult to obtain. We will review it at some later point in time.
Søylen (1994)
Another collection of short stories, where the situation pretty much is similar to what it is with "I et annet lys".
The House of the Insane (De gales hus), 1999.
(A literary novel.) «De gales hus» er en virkelig, sterk og flott skildring av psykiske lidelser. I boka møter vi Hanja, en ung kvinne som føler hun ikke har noe å leve for. Etter å ha prøvd å ta sitt eget liv, ved å hoppe gjennom et utstillingsvindu, kommer Hanja til Varden psykriatiske sykehus. Vi følger Hanja gjennom godt og vondt, og blir til slutt glad i denne skikkelsen.
Dette var en bok det var vanskelig å legge fra seg! De sterke personskildringene av menneskene rundt Hanja, den gryende forståelsen for Hanja's lidelse og den flotte stemningen i boka, gjør den til en leseropplevelse du må unne deg! Kanskje vil du kunne lære du litt om deg selv også?
(Anmeldelse av "student" på bokkilden.no)
Bestill De gales hus på norsk fra Bokkilden!
Jonas Eckel (2002)
(Not translated to English.) Jonas Eckel has everything in order and lives a very regular wife. However, he is not married, and misses a wife. But he has never been in love or had a relationship, and has more or less resigned to a single life. Then, suddenly, Lillian Ask - a sweet, somewhat chubby blonde - wanders into the storage facility where he works. Jonas falls in love. Shortly after, Jonas proposes and gets his Lillian.
 This is a strange couple. The somewhat pedantic Jones and the messy and impulsive Lillian. A problematic mix, excellently described by Fossum. After a relatively short while, whatever love there was in the relationship from the beginning, disappears. We follow this whole process from the point of view of Jonas, and can only guess how Lillian feels and thinks.
This is a beautiful, somewhat sad story, written with Fossum's warmth and passion, and with lots of humor and irony. A strange tale, told by a greath author, well written, and with an intense ending. Hightly recommended!
Bestill Jonas Eckel på norsk fra Bokkilden!
The Night of November 4th (Natt til fjerde november), 2003.
A literary novel
Jonna, sytten år gammel, forsvinner og etterlater seg ingenting. Heller ikke noen svar. Venninnene har ingen forklaringer. Foreldrene står maktesløse og alene tilbake. De opplever at medlidenhet og omsorg blir umulig å ta imot, og retter mer og mer søkelyset mot hverandre og seg selv: Hvor var det de sviktet datteren?
 Hovedspørsmålet i boken er: Hva vet vi egentlig om våre barn? Og kanskje: Hva vet vi om hva som er rett og riktig, og ikke minst hva som er viktig for dem?
Boken kunne ha vært en kriminalroman. Men her følger vi de etterlatte og deres reaksjoner og sorgbearbeiding, ikke etterforskningen av forsvinnelsen. Vi opplever på så nært hold som bare Karin Fossum kan de tusen vanskelige og plagsomme spørsmålene som reiser seg i sinnene til hovedpersonene i etterkant. Alle de vanskelige "hva om .. ?", "hva hvis ...?" som stort sett alltid kan reises i etterkant, men ofte bare stilles i etterkant.
Dette er en stor og følsom bok. Den anbefales varmt!
Bestill Natt til fjerde november fra Bokkilden!
Noveller i utvalg, 2004
This book, so far not translated to English, is  a collection of short stories from "I et annet lys"(1992) and "Søylen" (1994).
Ofte handler novellene om mennesker som føler seg utenfor og som sliter med å bli bekreftet. Utgangspunktet er ofte en realistisk, hverdagslig og gjenkjennbar situasjon. Som i kriminalromanene er det her Karin Fossum viser sin styrke som forfatter; det vanlige menneskets tilværelse hvor dramatikken og de sterke følelsene ulmer like under overflaten
Bestill Noveller i utvalg fra Bokkilden!
The Break (Brudd), 2006.
The opening of this book is wonderful. It is a about a female author. There are people waiting in line to get in to her, to get their stories written by her. But she is tired. Then something unexpected happens: A polite, quiet man pushes his way forward in the line, and all the way into the bedroom of the author, wakes her up, and asks to have his story told before all the others. If his story isn't told, he doesn't think he will have much of a life. The author reluctantly agrees. She gives the shy and  polite man the name "Alvar Eide", and begins to tell his story.
We follow his development throughout the book, as well as the relationship between Alvar and the author who reflects both over his life and her own.
Alvar Eide is a shy middle-aged man who lives a quiet and undramatic routine life, with no responsibilities to anyone. His parents are dead and he lives alone. He enjoys his work at an art gallery where he is a knowledgeable and conscientious art dealer.
One cold winter's day a young, freezing cold, drug addict comes into the gallery to warm herself, and Alvar feels sorry for her and offers her some coffee. From that moment on, he is unknowingly caught in a relationship that will have dramatic consequences for him.
The book is as exciting as a thriller. It is a different and touching story which describes how Alvar, a quiet, staid man becomes a dramatic creature, as well as about the author's life with her fictitious characters. How much it costs to create literature, how deeply involved she is with her characters. The book becomes a meeting place for (fictional) fictional and (fictional) real worlds. To some extent it resembles the relationship of man to God: We all want to be seen, to be visible, to experience good things with others. The author can give Alvar all of that, but tells him he has to make it happen himself.
It is a wonderful book, beautiful and controlled in its style, insightful, and with black humor and sharp observations. Perhaps Fossum's best book so far! I think so!
Bestill Brudd direkte fra Bokkilden!
3. Poetry by Fossum
Kanskje i morgen (1974)
(Maybe tomorrow.) Poetry, based on Fossum's shocking experiences both with the circumstances and patients at a mental hospital. This collection was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas debut prize for 1974.
Med ansiktet i skyggen (1978)
(With the face in the shadow.) Poetry.
3. About Karin Fossum.
An interview with Karin Fossum available online.
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