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Five Female Nordic Authors That You Can’t Miss

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Helsinki chapter.

There is nothing better than getting cozy with a warm cup of tea and maybe a freshly baked vegan banana bread and reading a good book.

Here are some Nordic female authors that you must check out. Luckily for us that don’t speak all the Nordic languages, they have all been translated into English.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Iceland)

Not only is Yrsa an amazing author, she is also a civil engineer! She is known for her Nordic noir crime novels. Such as the Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series, that focuses on Thóra, a lawyer in Reykjavík. Don’t read her novels before going to bed, because you will not be able to turn off the lights!

Outside of crime fiction, she has written several children’s books that have not been translated into English.

Gerd Brantenberg (Norway)

Sadly, only three of Gerd’s ten novels have been translated into English. The last book being translated was The Four Winds. It is a bildungsroman that focuses on Inger and her journey to self-discovery.

Gerd’s novels focus on love, lesbianism, and life during the 60s. 

Lene Kaaberbøl (Denmark)

Lena was only 15 when her first novel was published. Not only does she write children and young adult novels, she also writes crime novels not suitable for young children. 

She is known for her Nina Borg series that she co-writes with a fellow Danish author, Agnete Friis.

In 2004, she received the Nordic Children’s Book Prize.

Sofi Oksanen (Finland)

Sofi might be best known for her novel Purge that was published in 2008 and has been adapted into a play, film and an opera.  Her novels frequently focus on eating disorders and anxiety.

Sofi has been awarded several literary prizes such as the Finlandia Prize in 2008. In 2010, she won both French Fnac prize and the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.

Sara Stridsberg (Sweden)

Sara has won several literary prizes. In 2007, she was awarded the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, in 2013 she was awarded the Dobloug Prize and in 2015 the European Union Prize for Literature.

Sara’s newest novel was published in 2014 and is called The Gravity of Love and is set in a psychiatric hospital in Stockholm.

Helsinki Contributor