It is not often an award winning poet suddenly writes a crime novel. But now Ruth Lillegraven is doing just that.
'I can understand how people are surprised that I’m writing a crime story, because I’ve primarly written poems and children’s books. What I’m writing now is something completely different, and definitely not something I have done before – so it’s been a very steep learning curve.'
In Norway it’s quite sensational news that the Brage award winning author is to publish a crime novel this autumn, Alt er mitt ('Deep Fjord', not yet published in English) . But as far as she is concerned, it is something she has dreamt of for a long time:
'Ever since I debuted as an author in 2005, I’ve had this urge to try to write a crime novel, but I didn’t really think that I would write a traditional crime story with an investigator or journalist in the lead role.'
Lillegraven believes all writing is related a little:
'It’s about telling a good story in a good and original way, with good language. What characterises the thriller genre is that you always have to think technically, relative to the amount of information being presented. It’s a type of plot mapping that I’m not used to. All my books have an element of story building, but with crime there is much more to keep track of at all times. But it’s so much fun to learn something new.'
Using her own life
'The book follows a married couple, Clara and Haavard. He is a pediatrician at Ullevål Hospital and she is a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice. They’re a seemingly happy and successful couple living in West Oslo, but behind the facade things are creaking at the joints. At the same time, several people with immigrant backgrounds are found dead, and these killings affect both the couple’s private lives and their work,' says Lillegraven. She frequently uses elements from her own life in the story; among other things, the eight years where she worked at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, before she became a full-time writer.
'Along with the desire to write a crime novel, I also wanted to use my experience of working at the Ministry. I thought for a long time I would try to write about a strong female state secretary,' says Lillegraven.
And Clara, the strong state secretary, shares other similarities with Lillegraven in addition to her ministry connection, since they both originally come from Western Norway and settled in Eastern Norway. Clara in Oslo’s west side, and Lillegraven in Bærum.
'Without giving too much away, I can say that the book alternates between Western Norway and Eastern Norway, present and past, and between several narrative voices.'
International sources of inspiration
'So much cool and original crime has come out in recent years internationally, and I have found several good sources of inspiration among the foreign authors writing psychological thrillers,' says Lillegraven, who mentions names like Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, Peter Swanson and Malin Persson Giolito.
Lillegraven’s sources of inspiration write in a crime genre often referred to as 'Domestic Noir' or 'Grip-Lit' – that is, crime stories that are about the unpleasantness that plays out in the home, and crime that grips you.
'That is definitely the tradition I am trying to write in,' says Lillegraven.
The genre has dominated international thriller literature for years, and Norwegian readers have embraced books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
'Alt er mitt is an attempt to write a Norwegian grip-lit, yes, but it also has other crime elements to it like political thrillers and West Norwegian noir. So the book is really a hybrid of a thriller, and the Western Norway element provides a different starting point than a book set in the USA.'
For more information
Winje Agency: Ruth Lillegraven
Books from Norway: Alt er mitt