Dag Solstad

Dag Solstad (born July 16, 1941, Sandefjord, Norway—died March 14, 2025) was a novelist, short-story writer, critic, and dramatist. He was one of the most significant Norwegian writers to emerge during the 1960s.

Solstad began his career as a writer of short experimental fictions that investigated the themes of identity and alienation: Spiraler (1965; “Spirals”) and Svingstol (1967; “Swing Chair”). His novel Irr! Grønt! (1969; “Patina! Green!”) described the efforts of a peasant student to escape his limited background. Solstad’s fiction took a more directly political turn with the novel Arild Asnes, 1970 (1971), which traced the development of a young man to the point at which he perceived that political revolution was necessary and must be brought about by conflict. In 25 September Plassen (1974; “September 25th Square”) he showed the growing political awareness on the part of factory workers in the period following World War II. Svik. Førkrigsår (1977; “Betrayal: Prewar Years”) and Krig. 1940 (1978; “War: 1940”) were the first two in a series of novels that gave a minutely documented account of Norway in World War II.

Solstad’s later works include Roman 1987 (1987; “Novel 1987”), which won the Nordic Council Literature Prize; Genanse og verdighet (1994; Shyness and Dignity); Professor Andersens natt (1996; Professor Andersen’s Night); and 17. Roman (2009; “Novel 17”). He won the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize in 2017.