The family in life and writing - Grethe Fatima Syéd on Torborg Nedreaas

Hear Grethe Fatima Syéd discuss family in the life and works of Norwegian author Torborg Nedreaas, who wrote one of the great Norwegian coming-of-age stories, the trilogy about the girl Herdis Hauge, consisting of the books Trylleglasset (1950), Musikk fra en blå brønn (1960), and Ved neste nymåne (1971).

Nedreaas gained early recognition as a controversial author who broke taboos. Her work has a strong focus on women, as seen in the short story collection Bak skapet står øksen (1945), where she defended the German girls, and the novel Av måneskinn gror det ingenting (1947), which frighteningly realistically depicts a woman's self-induced abortions. Nedreaas was also seen as a significant contributor to the development of a modern Norwegian short story tradition influenced by the American short story. Torborg Nedreaas has been translated into nearly twenty languages.

Grethe Fatima Syéd (b. 1968) is a literary scholar, translator, and author. She wrote her doctoral thesis on Olav Duun and has published books about both him and Torborg Nedreaas. Syéd co-authored the musician biography HP Gundersen: Et liv i etableringsfasen (2018) and the debate book Hva snakker vi om når vi snakker om abort? (2021, with Kjersti Sandvik). She debuted as a fiction writer in 2020 with Eventyr for voksne. In 2019, she received the Klassekampen cultural prize Neshornet. In 2023, her essay collection Du kan ikke lage en potet - essays og artikler om litteratur og samfunn was published, and in fall 2024, she will release the poetry collection Og så vi med våre mangonyrer.

The event is part of the Kapittel Festival, September 18-22, 2024. See kapittel.no for the full program.