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Granta 175: Scandinavia
Dedicated to Scandinavian writing, this issue of Granta showcases a literature that continues to pack in more force, pound for pound, than almost anywhere else in Europe.
Karl Ove Knausgård turns his critical eye to the work of Tarjei Vesaas; diaries on motherhood, depression and creativity from Eeva Kilpi; and the first publication in English from Lars Norén's monumental En dramatikers dagbok. Featuring new fiction from Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Solvej Balle, Helle Helle, Vigdis Hjorth, Malte Tellerup, Kyrre Andreassen, Pirkko Saisio, Jonas Eika, Sigbjørn Skåden and Olga Ravn. Poetry by Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Asta Olivia Nordenhof, Ingela Strandberg, Sunna Dís Másdóttir, Espen Stueland, and Audun Mortensen, photography by Inuuteq Storch, Stephen Gill, Maja Daniels, Ikram Abdulkadir and paintings from Mamma Andersson.
Karl Ove Knausgård turns his critical eye to the work of Tarjei Vesaas; diaries on motherhood, depression and creativity from Eeva Kilpi; and the first publication in English from Lars Norén's monumental En dramatikers dagbok. Featuring new fiction from Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Solvej Balle, Helle Helle, Vigdis Hjorth, Malte Tellerup, Kyrre Andreassen, Pirkko Saisio, Jonas Eika, Sigbjørn Skåden and Olga Ravn. Poetry by Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Asta Olivia Nordenhof, Ingela Strandberg, Sunna Dís Másdóttir, Espen Stueland, and Audun Mortensen, photography by Inuuteq Storch, Stephen Gill, Maja Daniels, Ikram Abdulkadir and paintings from Mamma Andersson.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 20, 2026
Interessanter Einblick in skandinavische Literatur, unter anderem: Auch woanders gibt es alte weiße Theatermacher mit Entitlement-Problem.
August 16, 2026
Synopses are spoiler-free.
A literary magazine offers a curated collection of short stories, poems, essays, and photographs. I focus on reading all the short stories and the essays that pique my interest, occasionally browsing through the photographs. My reviews are limited to stories and essays. This issue features stories either written by Scandinavians or set in Scandinavia. The essays discuss Scandinavian authors. Typically, my ratings with the stories range from 2 to 5 stars, which aligns with my usual grade for this magazine. However, I truly appreciate the magazine’s diverse cultural authors that im exposed to..
1. The High Priestess by Olga Ravin - A woman starts having contractions, and the Priestess card from the tarot appears to her in the bathroom and guides her through labour, telling her what to do and answering the midwife's questions for her. Decent story. Reminds you of the haziness you're in during childbirth. (3/5)
2. Six Stories by Helle Helle - SOMETIME THAT SPRING - A woman sits next to a man, and as they smoke, she tells him the story of the time she left her newborn alone for three days. MORE COFFEE - A woman notices a man sitting at the end of their lane; she offers him coffee. He says nothing, and she gets it anyway. Then she offers him another; he shakes his head and gets up as she suggests they go for a walk. He hurries away from her, and she follows after, but at one point he turns around and says something startling. ONE CHAIR SHORT - A man and a woman get ready to host a dinner party, then the woman leaves. This makes no sense at all. MOBILE - A woman is sat up late waiting for her husband to come home when she gets a call from him that he's in an accident, bleeding on the side of the road. This was quite tense. TIMETABLES - A married man sleeps with a woman at a party and then tries to get her on the train she was going to take afterwards anyway. A WHIP-ROUND - An awkward moment in the office. All together, these mini stories rate (3/5)
3. Ioseb by Pirrko Saisio - Ioseb is being held to be led to be a priest. But he doesn't really want to go. He asks the priest if the story of St. George and the dragon is true, and the priest tells him it is a legend, part true and part fairy tale. The story is strange; it ends abruptly and doesn't make any sense to me. (2/5)
4. Vaim Hotel by Jon Fosse - A man has just bought a fishing rod and goes into a restaurant and rings the bell. He sets the rod against the wall at a table, but no one comes, so he goes out for a few minutes. When he comes back in, a woman is behind the bar; she goes over, takes the rod and asks to serve him. She doesn't believe he was in there before and puts his rod behind the bar. A very strange story with so much more strangeness. (3/5)
5. The Aviary by Solvej Balle - Two children are playing in the Aviary, cutting out dolls and homes. They cut out a birdcage and capture a bird to go in the book, so it's flat like their cuttings. It's not a pretty sight. This is my favourite story so far. (5/5)
6. Backwoods Fable by Sigbjørn Sweden - This is creepy and hard to follow. A guy gets a room in a tavern. He goes down to the bar part and finds it empty. He searches around until he comes to a large room full of people, and he asks for food, and they say meat stew. That's all, so he starts eating, and this is where it gets weird. (3/5)
7. Blow Up the Factory by Malte Tellerup - This is a deep, complex story tory that took me twice reading it to fully see the big picture. Basically, three people, men and women, are taken aside and told that their houses will be pulled down within three years, and they are being offered an extreme amount of money to buy the houses. The amount will decrease as the house becomes less sellable; they are advised to sell. Now. Easy to understand but hard to read.
8. The Good Person of Sandvikka by Vidgis Hjorth - A man is walking his dog with the older lady, Ada, and in talking he finds she plays the lottery. One day Ada tells him a secret: she's just won the lottery. He promises not to tell, but he tells her all sorts of things people can waste them on instead of doing good for the world. From then on, the man carefully watches her so she doesn't spend the money at all. She acts as if she hadn't won any at all. An entertaining story.
9. Furthermore, I Consider That Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Kyrre Andreassen - The narrator and his wife, along with his nail-biting son, have been called into the principal's office because the son gave a classmate a bloody nose. This is funny in a dry, sarcastic way. Enjoyable. (4/5)
10. A Strange Bird's Cry by Karl Ove Knausgård - An essay on the work of Tarjei Vesaas. Very interesting. A brief look at his life. Then he analyses his work through his study of it. First, he takes the work as a whole, naming several titles, including one not translated into English. Then he moves on to studying and telling the story of "The Birds", which he does spoil. I'll still read it though. I found this very intriguing as I have read Vesaas' "The Ice Palace", which was mentioned quite a bit at first. (4/5)
11. The Forest Kindergartners by Jonas Elka - One of what appears to be a lesbian couple reminisces about having their second child and quickly focuses on their first child. Talk turns to gender and the children and goes beyond me. Not really my type of thing. Readable. (3/5)
12. June by Eeva Kilpi - Selections from the author's diary. She is in a cabin up north in Finland. It appears to be warm during the day and cold during the night. She is in constant pain and goes through frequent bouts of depression. She is on the verge of coming out of writer's block and also talks of things in life that have disappointed her, like her sons. Very mournful but compelling. ( 5/5)
13. On Eternity and Nail Sizes by Jón Kalman Staffánsson - A group are gathered in Reykavík on Easter, and the leader is retelling the story of the crucifixion starting from the walk up the hill. The leader has almost supernatural powers in his telling as he takes his listeners there, and as he gets to the actual crucifixion, someone asks a silly question. Weird story. (2/5)
14. Every Time You Breathe, You Inhale the Dust from Our Bones by Ditte Holm Bro - A woman is sitting at the counter doing the business accounts, wishing her husband would hurry up and leave. Then she starts thinking, resenting him a bit, thinking they wouldn't have the business if it weren't for her, wishing she was paid a wage for what work she did. It would be nice to have her own money. Then her thoughts turn nicer as she thinks about what she and her husband would do with extra money, and so on. I think the piece shows what bad thoughts are. Normal in. Long-term marriages, but so is it for them to turn into good thoughts. (3/5)
15. Here Comes the Sun by Gùnnhild Øyehaug - A woman looks out the kitchen window and feels a vibrating in the air, in her feet, and she looks at the huge stone next door, a glacial erratic. Then she thinks of her life, her son, an erratic himself, and much more. Slices of her life until it comes full circle. (4/5)
16. Disappearing Acts by Amalie Langballe - A woman goes over to her boyfriend's on her bike in the rain and asks if she can wear a pair of his till hers dry. He looks for his smallest pair and tells her he's seeing someone else now. They've only been together for three months, but he's great in bed. She's stunned, and then they start having lots of sex. Weird. (2/5)
17. Three Stories by Dag Solstad. CATASTROPHE - A man is always driving his car fast down the highway to feel young again. ADJUTANT TO THE CROWN PRINCE - A man becomes the Adjutant to the crown prince and has a friendly relationship with him but has a hard time deciding whether to use the "you" informal with him. I've always wondered that must be difficult with gendered languages. SUMMARY - Two completely different summaries of stories about Peter Berg, who was away in Glasgow for two years and just got back to a small Scandinavian fishing town. Altogether, the stories are about a (3/5)
THE END
A literary magazine offers a curated collection of short stories, poems, essays, and photographs. I focus on reading all the short stories and the essays that pique my interest, occasionally browsing through the photographs. My reviews are limited to stories and essays. This issue features stories either written by Scandinavians or set in Scandinavia. The essays discuss Scandinavian authors. Typically, my ratings with the stories range from 2 to 5 stars, which aligns with my usual grade for this magazine. However, I truly appreciate the magazine’s diverse cultural authors that im exposed to..
1. The High Priestess by Olga Ravin - A woman starts having contractions, and the Priestess card from the tarot appears to her in the bathroom and guides her through labour, telling her what to do and answering the midwife's questions for her. Decent story. Reminds you of the haziness you're in during childbirth. (3/5)
2. Six Stories by Helle Helle - SOMETIME THAT SPRING - A woman sits next to a man, and as they smoke, she tells him the story of the time she left her newborn alone for three days. MORE COFFEE - A woman notices a man sitting at the end of their lane; she offers him coffee. He says nothing, and she gets it anyway. Then she offers him another; he shakes his head and gets up as she suggests they go for a walk. He hurries away from her, and she follows after, but at one point he turns around and says something startling. ONE CHAIR SHORT - A man and a woman get ready to host a dinner party, then the woman leaves. This makes no sense at all. MOBILE - A woman is sat up late waiting for her husband to come home when she gets a call from him that he's in an accident, bleeding on the side of the road. This was quite tense. TIMETABLES - A married man sleeps with a woman at a party and then tries to get her on the train she was going to take afterwards anyway. A WHIP-ROUND - An awkward moment in the office. All together, these mini stories rate (3/5)
3. Ioseb by Pirrko Saisio - Ioseb is being held to be led to be a priest. But he doesn't really want to go. He asks the priest if the story of St. George and the dragon is true, and the priest tells him it is a legend, part true and part fairy tale. The story is strange; it ends abruptly and doesn't make any sense to me. (2/5)
4. Vaim Hotel by Jon Fosse - A man has just bought a fishing rod and goes into a restaurant and rings the bell. He sets the rod against the wall at a table, but no one comes, so he goes out for a few minutes. When he comes back in, a woman is behind the bar; she goes over, takes the rod and asks to serve him. She doesn't believe he was in there before and puts his rod behind the bar. A very strange story with so much more strangeness. (3/5)
5. The Aviary by Solvej Balle - Two children are playing in the Aviary, cutting out dolls and homes. They cut out a birdcage and capture a bird to go in the book, so it's flat like their cuttings. It's not a pretty sight. This is my favourite story so far. (5/5)
6. Backwoods Fable by Sigbjørn Sweden - This is creepy and hard to follow. A guy gets a room in a tavern. He goes down to the bar part and finds it empty. He searches around until he comes to a large room full of people, and he asks for food, and they say meat stew. That's all, so he starts eating, and this is where it gets weird. (3/5)
7. Blow Up the Factory by Malte Tellerup - This is a deep, complex story tory that took me twice reading it to fully see the big picture. Basically, three people, men and women, are taken aside and told that their houses will be pulled down within three years, and they are being offered an extreme amount of money to buy the houses. The amount will decrease as the house becomes less sellable; they are advised to sell. Now. Easy to understand but hard to read.
8. The Good Person of Sandvikka by Vidgis Hjorth - A man is walking his dog with the older lady, Ada, and in talking he finds she plays the lottery. One day Ada tells him a secret: she's just won the lottery. He promises not to tell, but he tells her all sorts of things people can waste them on instead of doing good for the world. From then on, the man carefully watches her so she doesn't spend the money at all. She acts as if she hadn't won any at all. An entertaining story.
9. Furthermore, I Consider That Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Kyrre Andreassen - The narrator and his wife, along with his nail-biting son, have been called into the principal's office because the son gave a classmate a bloody nose. This is funny in a dry, sarcastic way. Enjoyable. (4/5)
10. A Strange Bird's Cry by Karl Ove Knausgård - An essay on the work of Tarjei Vesaas. Very interesting. A brief look at his life. Then he analyses his work through his study of it. First, he takes the work as a whole, naming several titles, including one not translated into English. Then he moves on to studying and telling the story of "The Birds", which he does spoil. I'll still read it though. I found this very intriguing as I have read Vesaas' "The Ice Palace", which was mentioned quite a bit at first. (4/5)
11. The Forest Kindergartners by Jonas Elka - One of what appears to be a lesbian couple reminisces about having their second child and quickly focuses on their first child. Talk turns to gender and the children and goes beyond me. Not really my type of thing. Readable. (3/5)
12. June by Eeva Kilpi - Selections from the author's diary. She is in a cabin up north in Finland. It appears to be warm during the day and cold during the night. She is in constant pain and goes through frequent bouts of depression. She is on the verge of coming out of writer's block and also talks of things in life that have disappointed her, like her sons. Very mournful but compelling. ( 5/5)
13. On Eternity and Nail Sizes by Jón Kalman Staffánsson - A group are gathered in Reykavík on Easter, and the leader is retelling the story of the crucifixion starting from the walk up the hill. The leader has almost supernatural powers in his telling as he takes his listeners there, and as he gets to the actual crucifixion, someone asks a silly question. Weird story. (2/5)
14. Every Time You Breathe, You Inhale the Dust from Our Bones by Ditte Holm Bro - A woman is sitting at the counter doing the business accounts, wishing her husband would hurry up and leave. Then she starts thinking, resenting him a bit, thinking they wouldn't have the business if it weren't for her, wishing she was paid a wage for what work she did. It would be nice to have her own money. Then her thoughts turn nicer as she thinks about what she and her husband would do with extra money, and so on. I think the piece shows what bad thoughts are. Normal in. Long-term marriages, but so is it for them to turn into good thoughts. (3/5)
15. Here Comes the Sun by Gùnnhild Øyehaug - A woman looks out the kitchen window and feels a vibrating in the air, in her feet, and she looks at the huge stone next door, a glacial erratic. Then she thinks of her life, her son, an erratic himself, and much more. Slices of her life until it comes full circle. (4/5)
16. Disappearing Acts by Amalie Langballe - A woman goes over to her boyfriend's on her bike in the rain and asks if she can wear a pair of his till hers dry. He looks for his smallest pair and tells her he's seeing someone else now. They've only been together for three months, but he's great in bed. She's stunned, and then they start having lots of sex. Weird. (2/5)
17. Three Stories by Dag Solstad. CATASTROPHE - A man is always driving his car fast down the highway to feel young again. ADJUTANT TO THE CROWN PRINCE - A man becomes the Adjutant to the crown prince and has a friendly relationship with him but has a hard time deciding whether to use the "you" informal with him. I've always wondered that must be difficult with gendered languages. SUMMARY - Two completely different summaries of stories about Peter Berg, who was away in Glasgow for two years and just got back to a small Scandinavian fishing town. Altogether, the stories are about a (3/5)
THE END
July 16, 2026
Going to have to become a knausgard guy now
Read
June 15, 2026Sometimes I wonder if GRANTA needs to have country/ region themed editions. the authors here are diverse, but I’m left with the idea of these writers as morose, isolated, writing about the minutiae of there lives in intricate detail.
There are a couple essays about authors the world outside of their own world does not know. The Swedish Lars Norén (whose excerpted work here, “Diary of A Playwright”, I found mundane—too personal to be engaging. I did not finish it), and the Norwegian, Tarjei Vesaas, whose work has never been translated into English. The praise for these writers heaped by Sigrid Rausing, and Karl Ove Knausgård, respectively, has a desperate air, a call for a broader appeal, more translation efforts, or a haughty “you don’t know what you’re missing”. I would have rather read an excerpt of Vesaas, or a play of Norén’s.
I’m always happy to read more Olga Ravn. Solvej Balle captures the minds of children, problem solving, innocently destructive. Jon Fosse works draw on commonplace interactions and behaviors, though the repetitive contemplation of these actions grows tedious for me.
I enjoyed the poetry. And the photo essays. I liked seeing Mamma Andersson’s paintings.
There are a couple essays about authors the world outside of their own world does not know. The Swedish Lars Norén (whose excerpted work here, “Diary of A Playwright”, I found mundane—too personal to be engaging. I did not finish it), and the Norwegian, Tarjei Vesaas, whose work has never been translated into English. The praise for these writers heaped by Sigrid Rausing, and Karl Ove Knausgård, respectively, has a desperate air, a call for a broader appeal, more translation efforts, or a haughty “you don’t know what you’re missing”. I would have rather read an excerpt of Vesaas, or a play of Norén’s.
I’m always happy to read more Olga Ravn. Solvej Balle captures the minds of children, problem solving, innocently destructive. Jon Fosse works draw on commonplace interactions and behaviors, though the repetitive contemplation of these actions grows tedious for me.
I enjoyed the poetry. And the photo essays. I liked seeing Mamma Andersson’s paintings.
July 12, 2026
I seemed to like this issue of Granta much more than many of the other reviewers apparently did. I've been a Granta reader since Issue #1, and have seen my share of 3 and 4 star issues, and I gave this one 5-stars. I think they had me at the very first line in the issue "Independent People?", since I had finished the somewhat famous book of that title by Icelandic writer Halldor Laxness just a few weeks before this issue arrived. That book set a great tone for this Granta issue and I was thoroughly absorbed by the writing and the poetry.
July 8, 2026
This Granta collection of short stories - as well as poems and photos- gives a unique insight into Nordic literature and writers . There is a complementarity, and a tonality that resounds across all works. Some voices stand out such as Jon Fosse and Helle Helle in this series - most works are pretty stunning in their own right but it is the combination of them that makes this collection so interesting.
August 3, 2026
an all round hearty and consistently solid dose of scandi-lit, with the, always appreciated, granta-ism of shining a light on emerging, forgotten, or regional writers that the reader may not have encountered before - though, there’s many a big name in this issue, all of whom are delivering!
i did miss some of the more journalism centred nonfiction i enjoy from granta, but when the fiction and essays are this good, you can’t complain too much
i did miss some of the more journalism centred nonfiction i enjoy from granta, but when the fiction and essays are this good, you can’t complain too much
July 18, 2026
After thoroughly enjoying Granta 174: Therapy, unfortunately I found this 175: Scandinavia edition banal and depressing. The only saving grace is the short format, so battling through is still achievable. As one other reviewer commented Granta may be better off with thematic editions rather than geographical.
July 12, 2026
I think I might just have different taste from the Granta editors. I was bored during much of this, though I did enjoy some of the stories by Helle Helle, the poetry of Audun Mortenson and Ingela Strandberg, and the photography by Ikram Abdulkadir.
May 22, 2026
Deserved a 4* rating but the re-telling of another authors work, Tarjei Vesaas, by Karl Ove Knausgård was tedious to say the least.
July 7, 2026
I think I expected this edition to be more modern and to examine what daily life is like in Scandinavian countries. I found the first half slow but it picked up. Beautiful photography in this one.
July 12, 2026
Worth it for the knausgaard piece alone
July 24, 2026
Personal Highlights
-Six stories by Helle Helle
-Lars Norén diary entries
-June by Eeva Kilpi
-Porcelain souls by Inuuteq Storch
-Blow up the factory by Malte Tellerup
-Six stories by Helle Helle
-Lars Norén diary entries
-June by Eeva Kilpi
-Porcelain souls by Inuuteq Storch
-Blow up the factory by Malte Tellerup
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews