Feature

Jo Nesbo's 6 favorite books

The Norwegian crime novelist recommends works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Bukowski, and more

Nesbo

Hunger by Knut Hamsun (Dover, $8). This is the first real Oslo novel, from back when Oslo was called Christiania. The narrator, in the first line, describes it as "that strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him." Hamsun filled the pages that follow with powerful writing, anxiety, and insatiable love.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski (Ecco, $15). I'd thought that Ham on Rye was a kind of hipster novel of my generation — until I heard my father, who'd borrowed my copy, laughing out loud. Which meant that Bukowski's semi-autobiographical, Depression-era coming-of-age tale must be quality literature.

Brand by Henrik Ibsen (Penguin, $13). Is Ibsen's Brand a Norwegian psychopath? No, just an idealist who has gone astray. But this 1865 play about a mystical clergyman is still terrifying.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, $15). I probably could have picked any Hemingway novel, but I read this one at a formative time. Blood, booze, sun, and vengeful lovers are always a good combination, but it's the prose that makes this book exceptional.

Watchmen by Alan Moore, with illustrations by Dave Gibbons (DC Comics, $20). Not your average graphic novel, this work about a group of flawed, over-the-hill crime fighters who are roused from retirement by the murder of a former associate is instead an ambitious literary project that takes the superhero genre seriously.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Bantam, $7). Dostoyevsky was Hamsun's Russian cousin. In this tale about a young nobleman whose goodness puts him at odds with an avaricious world, Dostoyevsky gives us tragedy, desperate love, human folly, epic courage, death, gallantry, and senseless sacrifice. In short, all the things you want from a Russian novel.

My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Archipelago Books, $18 Book One / $26 Book Two). A six-volume literary experiment in which a contemporary Norwegian author describes his own life may sound dull. But Knausgaard's literary experiment is both brutally honest and far from dull. Trust me, it'll be worth waiting for volumes three through six to appear in English translation.

— Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo is the author of the best-selling Harry Hole series. In Police, the series's tenth novel, the hard-bitten Oslo detective is forced to sit on the sidelines as a killer begins cutting down Oslo's police officers.

Recommended

The daily gossip: March 23, 2023
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Daily gossip

The daily gossip: March 23, 2023

The Mandalorian's best Star Wars Easter eggs
The Mandalorian
Feature

The Mandalorian's best Star Wars Easter eggs

The daily gossip: March 22, 2023
Gisele Bündchen
Daily gossip

The daily gossip: March 22, 2023

6 books to read if you already miss The Last of Us
Fly agaric mushrooms
In review

6 books to read if you already miss The Last of Us

Most Popular

DeSantis' no good, very bad week
Ron DeSantis at a podium
Behind the scenes

DeSantis' no good, very bad week

Essential molecules for life may have been 'delivered' to Earth from space
Asteroid Ryugu.
alien invasion

Essential molecules for life may have been 'delivered' to Earth from space

Mosquito species from South America discovered in Florida
Culex lactator.
new in town

Mosquito species from South America discovered in Florida