His hero Harry Hole has been balancing on the precipice in the books for 25 years.
Jo Nesbø hits a nerve and is read and celebrated all over the world.
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Jo Nesbø is a Norwegian writer and musician who was born on March 29, 1960 in Oslo.
Above all, his crime series about the hardened detective Harry Hole (pronounced "Hoo-la" in Norway) made him internationally known and earned him one or two film rights.
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Jo Nesbø is one of Norway's best-known crime writers.
He has been writing crime novels starring Harry Hole for 25 years.
© Vit Simanek/CTK Photo/Imago
Norway has produced a number of interesting crime writers, such as Anne Holt.
Like her, Nesbø writes complicated criminal cases that are very popular in Norway and around the world, and not just at Easter.
Jo Nesbø: writer and musician
Nesbø grew up in Molde in western Norway.
During his school days he played guitar and sang in a pop-rock band.
After graduating, he worked as a stockbroker, formed a band called
Di Derre
and recorded a few albums with them.
The job took its toll.
He was a songwriter at heart and always wanted to tell stories.
The 13 best thrillers by Jo Nesbø with Harry Hole
The 13 best thrillers by Jo Nesbø with Harry Hole
A suggestion to write a book about touring with the band fell on fertile ground.
However, he still saw himself as a singer-songwriter.
In 1992, he helped form a band called
Di Derre
, which recorded several albums.
Working a stressful job during the day and performing with his increasingly popular band at night eventually took their toll on Nesbø.
When someone happened to suggest that he write a book about touring with the band, he accepted the challenge, asked for six months off and traveled to Australia.
There he wrote his first Harry Hole novel ("The Bat Man" - promotional link), which was later published.
The Harry Hole novels by Jo Nesbø in order
The Bat Man, 1997
Cockroaches, 1998
Robin, 2000
The Trail, 2002
The Fifth Sign, 2003
The Redeemer, 2005
Snowman, 2007 (promotional link)
Leopards, 2009
The Larva, 2011
Coma, 2013
Thirst, 2017
Knives, 2019
Blood Moon, 2022 - Meeting
Jo Nesbø: Writing workaholic
Jo Nesbø is a workaholic, someone who now indulges in fancy hotels and good restaurants.
However, rest is far from him.
However, it is important to economize with the forces, as they brought him to the brink of resilience in the mid-1990s.
Working between the stock market and music, back then in one of Norway's most successful bands, is not the perfect mix.
Meanwhile, the work on books is in the foreground.
For me, writing means freedom.
Jo Nesbo
Nesbø finds writing liberating.
He prefers to write in places that have a certain noise level.
According to an interview in the
Süddeutsche Zeitung,
it's cafés or airports where he likes to write and where he finds his inner peace for the books.
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Football and skiing in the past - today crime bestsellers and children's books
Norway is famous as a skiing nation.
Jo Nesbø, who enjoyed skiing in his youth and also played football successfully, also stood on the beds whenever possible.
An initially undetected cruciate ligament tear, later also in the second knee, meant that he gave up his football career quite early.
Growing up in Molde, he played in the same football club as Dortmund's Erling Haaland.
But the injuries and the longing for novels made him take a different path.
Nesbø's Harry Hole series proved extremely popular and was translated into more than 40 languages.
The tight plot and partly due to Nesbø's method of presenting his main character.
Throughout the series, Hole battles his demons, sometimes successfully, but often not.
Each subsequent volume deepens the reader's experience of Hole and his life on the edge.
Additionally, the later books reference events in the earlier books, another effect that adds dimensions to Hole's deeply flawed but essentially likable personality.
In addition to successful crime novels, Nesbø writes children's books, including the books about Doctor Proktor and his Fart Powder, which have also been made into films.
List of rubrics: © Vit Simanek/CTK Photo/Imago