Johan Harstad

He sees human fates in modern reality in a way that is both urgent and refined, offering a complete involvement and a particular sense of absurd humor. His characters often stand slightly to one side, at a distance to the major pulse of society. They are vulnerable, lonely, different.

Buzz Aldrin, what happened to you in all the confusion? (2005): The novel tackles the big question: What does it mean to be a human today? What is important in our lives? The narrative voice is convincing, and Mattias, the protagonist, strives to be the invisible second man, the cog, the one nobody notices.

«Buzz Aldrin is an enchanting adventure with a terrifically good narrator. »
Het Patrool, Amsterdam.

Hässelby (2007): It’s about growing up in a suburb and knowing you’ll never escape. It’s about the collection value of Star Wars action figures, about the rock group The Police, about acausal causalities and everyday synchronicity. Hässelby is a novel about those all too numerous demons that come, perhaps, at the very worst time, but that nonetheless must come – sooner or later.

Max, Mischa & the Tet Offensive (2015): Friendship, exile, love, war and art: Johan Harstad's breathtaking new epic has it all.But more than anything is a novel about the question anyone who has ever left home sooner or later has to ask himself: For how long do you have to be away before it becomes too late to go home?