“The fear doesn’t go away, but you do learn to handle it and conquer it,” says Jo Nesbø.
Norway’s best-selling writer, and one of the great weavers of “Nordic Noir,” has always had a touch of acrophobia – the fear of heights – and about 10 years ago, well into his 50s, he decided to do something about it. He started rock climbing, he tells Zoomer.
In 2023, he achieved a long-standing goal of climbing an advanced-level French route (grade 8a, for those in the know). So far, he’s climbed in 20 countries – and was leaving for Spain for another such adventure the day after our interview.
“It’s always there,” Nesbø said, returning to the idea of fear. “And I wouldn’t want it to entirely go away because it’s part of the thrill.”
The darkest part of ourselves, and the suspension between denial and knowing, is, of course, something that has long attracted the crime writer. Having sold some 60 million copies worldwide, and translated into 51 languages, he is best known for his Harry Hole series – featuring a homicide detective with a reckless streak. The book series will get the Netflix treatment when Jo Nesbø‘s Detective Hole premieres March 26th.
Wolf Hour, meanwhile, is Nesbø’s most recent book, and also his 10th standalone novel. This one departs from Scandinavia and is the first to be set entirely in the United States. Minneapolis, to be exact – inspired by a real-life visit he made to the city in 2022, after the murder of George Floyd. As timing would have it, the book came out just after the more recent turmoil in the city – when ICE agents killed two American citizens – taking on a kind of unexpected relevance. It unfolds in two chronologies: 2016 and 2022, following Det. Bob Oz as he tracks a sniper. Indubitably, it has the author’s trademark matrix of twists and turns.
Nesbø, who has worn many different hats in his 65 years – a professional soccer player, stockbroker and also a musician – is nonplussed about the timing of the publication. Writing a book that intersects with real life is something that he’s used to, and is just part of the strange fiction meta-verse, perhaps: “I wrote a book, Occupied, which was about a Russian invasion. This was before Ukraine.”
When we later veered into a discussion of how his books are categorized and received, I asked: “What, anyways, is this amorphous genre known as ‘Nordic Noir,’ or ‘Scandi Noir?’” Nesbø chuckled, “I have no idea!” What he knows is this: a good story is a good story.
Speaking of which, many storytellers have influenced him along the way and here he walks us through some favourites.
What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
I seldom re-read books, but I re-read Hunger by Knut Hamsun [a fellow Norwegian]. It’s interesting because sometimes you re-read some of your favourites from when you were younger – like I also recently re-read some short stories by Hemingway, and, much to my surprise, it was kind of a let-down. But Hamsun, he didn’t let me down! He was even better than I remembered.
What book can’t you wait to dive into?
Burning Down the House by Jonathan Gould. It’s about the New York music scene in the ’70s, and Talking Heads.
What’s your favourite book of all time?
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is still one of my all-time favourites. The way it is both uncomfortable and thrilling. The beautiful prose and the ugly content that co-exist. It’s the same as American Psycho [by Bret Easton Ellis]. Both have that.
What book completely changed your perspective?
I have to go back to my childhood, and a book that my father introduced to me, and that is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
If you could have dinner with any author, living or dead, who would it be?
I would have liked to have had dinner with Jim Thompson [one of the fathers of American hardboiled crime fiction]. Crime writer to crime writer.
