The previous novel, "Mother of the Night" – about an author trying to understand who his depressed mother was – had great similarities with Niels Fredrik Dahl's own life and his own mother. A novel about two depressively inclined people, according to himself.
"Father's Back" deals with his father and gives him almost all the space.
The back can mean so much, both security and rejection. He was a lonely man who in many ways stood outside life. But he was simultaneously very loving and warm. It's both closeness and distancing that lies in this back, says Niels Fredrik Dahl.
Restless Europe
The father was born in Egypt and was already placed in a boarding school in Geneva by his Norwegian parents as a child, something that came to characterize his life. Niels Fredrik Dahl sees him coming walking from Egypt, via Switzerland and up to Norway, through a Europe in flames. After his father's death in 2008, Niels Fredrik Dahl realized how little he knew about him.
In living life, I saw his back, to be able to write about him and give him a place, I had to turn him around so that he came walking towards me.
"Father's Back" will be published in Swedish translation by Gun-Britt Sundström at the beginning of next year.
No Swede
The Nordic Council's prize winners were presented in a pre-recorded TV program on Tuesday evening.
The children's and young adult literature prize goes to the Danish comic artist and illustrator Jakob Martin Strid for "The Fantastic Bus", the music prize to the Danish composer Rune Glerup for his violin concerto "About Light and Darkness" and the film prize to the Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud for "Sex", a drama comedy about two chimney sweeps with homoerotic desires.
The Icelandic architect Arnhildur Pálmadóttir receives the environmental prize for her focus on sustainability and reuse in urban planning.
All prize winners receive 300,000 Danish kronor.
The Nordic Council's prizes are awarded this year in Reykjavik and the Icelandic hosts have decided to make a pre-recorded TV program about the winners and nominees instead of a traditional award gala. It's been a long time since the award gala was broadcast live on TV in the Nordic countries and Bryndís Haraldsdóttir, chair of the Nordic Council's presidency, wants to try a new approach to reach a broader audience.
"We've had a pretty expensive gala that wasn't shown, we didn't really feel that it's what this is about", says Bryndís Haraldsdóttir.
In Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Finland, and Denmark, the program was shown on public service, but not in Sweden, where interested parties are referred to www.norden.org.
