A winner of the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize, the Brage Prize and twice of the Critics’ Prize Kjell Askildsen (b. 1929) is one of the great Norwegian writers of the post-war era and an inescapable reference in contemporary Scandinavian literature. Admired above all for his short stories, Askildsen has cultivated a terse, ascetic style which is a perfect vehicle for his existential themes. Though the world view often seems bleak and disillusioned, there is also humour in his works, albeit of the black, laconic kind.