I worked in a bookstore in Oslo, importing the English-language books.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.
If you're a Norwegian writer, you are not visible in the world. The door of the English language is very hard to open for a Norwegian writer.
My mum was a librarian, and my dad worked in Greenland.
Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.
I graduated with an English degree and worked for awhile in academic publishing.
I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.
The public library is where I studied. It's where my grandfather taught himself English.
My books have been translated into various languages and sold in other countries, but I never have any contact with the foreign publishers and am so disconnected from that process that it seems almost imaginary. With 'How to Save a Life', I worked closely with Usborne editors and have been involved in the publicity.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in English, which means I had a lot of formal training in reading.
I got my first book deal when I was in college, but it was published in Germany, and I could never actually read it.