Per Petterson

Per Petterson is considered one of today's most outstanding Norwegian authors. With a work translated into more than fifty languages, Petterson explores in his books the fragility of the human being, loneliness and memory with the recurrent presence of relationships and family conflicts. Before his literary debut with the short story collection Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, 1987), he had worked for several years as a laborer, bookseller and translator. In 1991, shortly after publishing his first novel, he suffered a family tragedy in which his parents, brother and niece died in a fire on the ferry they were traveling on. This tragic event will mark the work formed by eight novels and two books of short stories. The author has been recognized with several awards but it is in 2003, with the novel Out Stealing Horses (published in Catalan by Club Editor, 2016, and in Spanish by Libros del Asteroide, 2022) with which he conquered readers and literary awards around the world. Among his works translated into Catalan and Spanish are To Siberia (Club Editor, 2011), I Curse the River of Time (Club Editor, 2009, and Literatura Random House, 2010) with which he won the Nordic Council Literature Prize, Men in My Situation (Club Editor, Libros del Asteroide, 2020) and I Refuse (Club Editor, 2022), a moving story about the passage of time, friendship and vulnerability.