1967 Johan Borgen, Norway: Nye noveller

1967 Johan Borgen, Norge: Nye noveller
gyldendal.no

About the author

Johan Borgen worked as an editor, critic and feature writer for a number of Norwegian newspapers. During the occupation, he wrote several critical articles, which caused him to be arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and imprisoned for some time in the Grini concentration camp. His overall literary breakthrough came in the 1950s when he published the novel trilogy Lillelord. The trilogy unites an in-depth psychological perspective and a realistic portrayal of an era.

About the winning piece

Nye noveller consists of 18 texts that describe and analyse various aspects of human nature. The texts are grouped in themes of love, hatred, childhood, animals as reflections of humans and human interrelations. He examines human beings’ basic conditions for perceiving time and space. Exploration of the physical world also represents an existential quest. Some short stories strike an exalted mythological-romantic tone, others are significantly more realistic. One short story, Vi mordere, mostly resembles a condensed crime story. Common for all novels is the feeling of disease underlying the idyllic surface.

Nye noveller

Published by: The publishing house Gyldendal Norsk Forlag 

Publication year: 1965

This is what the Adjudicating Committee had to say

Johan Borgen, storyteller, playwright and essayist, has reached a pinnacle, particularly in his short stories, in which, with linguistic precision, he develops his versatile view of the world and interprets the fickle nature of man.