Missed Calls
NOMINATED FOR THE 2022 NORDIC COUNCIL CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERARY PRIZE
Awarded the 2021 Ministry of Culture Graphic Novel Prize
Awarded the 2021 Riksmål Prize for Excellent Prose
Awarded “GOLD Best Illustrations Children’s Books 2022” The Year’s Most Beautiful Books (the Norwegian Designer’s Guild’s Visual Prize)
In this graphic novel, Nora Dåsnes shows how an ordinary girl experienced the terrorist attack on 22 July. Although Rebekka herself wasn’t directly affected by the attack, she still feels that what ensued was like an unprecedented situation, marked by confusion, fear, and unrest. (…) “Missed Calls” is a strong, credible, and nuanced work showing how the terrorist attack affected the entire Norwegian nation and not just those who were in the middle of the drama that took place on 22 July 2011.
From the Nordic Council nomination jury’s statement
(…) full of hope (…) few, or none, describe the depression of a nation and the tense atmosphere fall 2011 the way Nora Dåsnes does (…) A fine deed (…) Nora Dåsnes draws Oslo most likely the way Edvard Munch would have done today.
Kristine Isaksen, VG, 6 out of 6 stars
Oslo, late summer 2011
A month has passed since the terror attack July 22nd. Rebekka didn’t know anyone who died in the terror attack, and she believes that she is a kind of person who can keep on living. When her friend Fariba become a member of a political party, Rebekka gets occupied with the school’s revue, in Daniel with the curly hair, in partying, with school work, and with friends.
The problem is that Rebekka is thinking of the terror attack all the time.
A graphic novel about being young in the time after a terror attack. A story about looking for meaning in life facing the meaningless, about being on the outside, sorrow and anxiety. About how demanding it can be to reach out for each other, and how crucial it is when we manage.