Linde Hagerup

Linde Hagerup, who comes from a family of writers, was born in 1968 and spent her childhood in Rykkinn in the Norwegian municipality of Bærum. At the age of 17 she began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen under Jon Fosse, among others. Afterwards, she worked for a theater and as co-editor of the literary magazine »Vagant«.

She published her short prose for the first time in 1999 under the title »Og det skal vare så lenge« (tr: And It Will Be So Long). In it, she manages, with only a few words, almost like drawing a sketch, to capture situations and moods and express an interpersonal drama or the emotional world of her protagonists. She subsequently published novels such as the trilogy »Jesus er gravid – og andre sannheter fra Rykkinn« (2009, 2010, 2012; tr: Jesus is Pregnant – and Other Truths from Rykkinn) and her first children’s book »En bror for mye« (2016; tr: One Brother Too Many). In it, Hagerup writes from a child’s perspective about the changes that can take place in a family after death. The idea for this book materialized after the unexpected death of a close friend of the author. The narrative focuses on nine-year-old Sara, who experiences a happy childhood with her sister and parents. Her world changes when a friend of her mother’s dies and her son, the five-year-old Steinar, is taken into the family. From now on, Sara must not only share her room with him, but also the care and attention of her parents. Steinar is traumatized by the death of his mother: sometimes he is demanding, sometimes angry, sometimes he descends into sadness. Sara, who finds it hard to accept that Steinar is the center of attention most of the time, has to find a way to build a relationship with the unwanted brother. She finally comes up with an idea: She cuts her hair off and becomes a boy named Alfred, because she believes that she can take better care of Steinar as a big brother and thus win back the attention of her parents. Deutschlandfunk Kultur praised the book, saying: »Linde Hagerup masterfully builds her story around Sara. One thinks and suffers with the nine-year-old, understands her feelings and thus comes very close to feeling her desperation. Nothing turns her into a cliché. A wonderful family story. One that goes straight to the heart and shows that even with the best intentions, much can go wrong, because mothers and fathers are also fallible.«

The author lives on the island of Kråkerøy in the municipality of Fredrikstad.

Og det skal vare så lenge

Oktober

Oslo, 1999

Ikke sant

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2007

Verdens største gorilla

[Ill. Thore Hansen]

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2008

Ingen som røyker hopper strikk

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2008

Get used to it

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2010

Var det det det var

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2012

Jesus er gravid

og andre sannheter fra Rykkinn

Cappelen Damm

Oslo, 2012

Ein Bruder zu viel

[Ill. Felicitas Horstschäfer]

Gerstenberg

Hildesheim, 2019

[Ü: Gabriele Haefs]