A Very Scandinavian Christmas
The Greatest Nordic Holiday Stories of All Time
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A smorgasbord of Christmas stories by writers from Hans Christian Andersen to August Strindberg to Karl Ove Knausgaard. This collection brings together the best Scandinavian holiday stories, including classics by Hans Christian Andersen of Denmark; Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, August Strindberg and Hjalmar Söderberg of Sweden; as well as the popular contemporary Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard. These Nordic tales—coming from the very region where so much of traditional Christmas imagery originates—convey a festive and contemplative spirit laden with lingonberries, elks, gnomes, Sami trolls, candles, church spires, gingerbread, and aquavit in abundance. These unexpected literary gifts are sure to provide plenty of pleasure and hygge, that specifically Scandinavian blend of coziness and contentment.
August Strindberg
Harry G. Carlson teaches Drama and Theatre at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He has written widely on Swedish drama and theatre and has been honored in Sweden for his books, Strindberg and the Poetry of Myth (California, 1982) and Out of Inferno: Strindberg's Reawakening as an Artist (1996), play translations and critical essays.
More by August Strindberg
Vigdis Hjorth
Vigdis Hjorth is the author of over a dozen prize-winning and best-selling novels. Will and Testament sold 170,000 copies in Norway and has received several awards, including the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, as well as being nominated for the National Book Award and Nordic Council Literature Prize. Long Live the Post Horn! won the Believer Book Award for fiction in 2020, and Is Mother Dead was listed for the International Booker Prize in 2023.
More by Vigdis Hjorth
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