TORMOD HAUGEN

Tormod Haugen (1945-2008) is one of Norway's most prominent authors for children and teenagers. He was born and grew up in a little village in the middle of a Norwegian forest. As a young man he moved to Oslo to study German literature and language, the history of art, and literature. He made his debut as an author in 1973 and produced a broad, rich authorship. Haugen's books have been translated into 24 languages.

Haugen started his authorship in the realistic tradition. From the start his books reflected his refined taste as a writer combined with a personal style. Using low key, intense language packed into tight form, he worked reality into the art of a well written novel, an art his most frequently translated novel, Nattfuglene (The Night Birds, 1975), is a good example of. In this book he also combines, with poetic feeling and literary mastery, elements of fantasy into realism to portray the feelings of children when they are threatened by adult incomprehension and lack of insight.

Since that time Haugen's novels continually crossed the borders between fantasy and realistic literature, just as they traverse the boundaries between child and adult literature. He weaved into his stories elements from Norwegian folktales and myths and from traditional international children's literature. He showed himself as an experimental and creative author. In the early 1970s he widened the dimensions of social realism, and continued until 1989 when he published (The Scream from the Jungle) which has been characterized as the first post modernistic novel in Norwegian children's literature. The language varies from novel to novel, from the low key intense, to the exuberantly fabolous. His first concern is always to tell a story, using people as a basis – people with their variety of feelings, relationships, and reactions. He delves deep into the relationship between children and their parents, and writes of their bonds, separations and of the child's fight for his integrity which may end in a battle of life and death. Dreams and fantasy are strong weapons in this battle.