Vassmu, Herbjörg

Herbjörg Vassmu was born on December 6, 1942 in northern Norway , in the Vesterålen region, in the small town of Muret in Aksnese . Back in childhood, elementary school Wassmu wrote complete grammatical mistakes, but very poetic verses , and also drew well. After receiving the teaching profession, Vassmu worked for many years at a school in Northern Norway, at the same time studying literature and continuing to write poetry and prose . In 1976, Vassmu published her first collection of lyric poems, "Slamming Wings," which had no success.

Herbjörg Wassmu made her debut in 1981 as a prose writer when her first novel, The House with a Closed Veranda (House with a Glass Veranda) was published. Before that, Vassmu was virtually unknown, so when the book was awarded the Norwegian Critics Association Prize in the same year and nominated for the prestigious Norwegian Literary Prize of the Nordic Council (the so-called “Scandinavian Nobel”), this was a major event in modern Norwegian literature. This time, the Northern Council Literature Prize was not presented to the writer only because, according to the rules of awarding the prize, the debutant could not become its laureate, but in 1987 the writer was awarded this prize for the novel Bleeding Heaven.

After the first successful novel, Herbjörg Vassmu finally quit her job at the school in order to devote herself entirely to writing. One of the main themes in the works of Vassmu are the problems of women in society, as well as the modern reality of Northern Norway. This was already noticeable in the first two poetry collections of Vassm, some poems of which were written in the local dialect .

The main works of Herbjörg Vassm are two trilogies : about Torah and about Dean. The trilogy under the general title “Torah”, which includes the novels “The House with a Closed Veranda” ( 1981 ), “The Quiet Room” ( 1983 ) and “Bleeding Heaven” ( 1986 ) are realistic novels about a young girl from a small fishing village in North Of Norway, who was sexually abused by her stepfather , about the attempts of the Torah to overcome the traumatic experience of her childhood. In his aspirations to isolate himself from the past and escape from the environment, in the dreams of another life, the Torah ceases to distinguish between reality and dreams, which turns into insanity for it and ends in a premature death . In the Torah trilogy, the writer also pays great attention to a realistic description of the life of people in a small northern Norwegian village in the 50s of the 20th century .

In 1989 - 1997 , Herbjörg Vassmu wrote a trilogy under the general title "Dina", which includes the novels "The Book of Dina" ( 1989 ), "The Son of Happiness" ( 1992 ) and "The Legacy of Karna" ( 1997 ). The action of this trilogy takes place in the 40s - 50s of the 19th century , beginning in a trading city in Northern Norway, continuing in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and ending again in Norway, and the image of the main character Dinah became the antithesis of the Torah. Like the Torah, Dina experiences tragedy in her childhood: her careless actions become the involuntary cause of her mother’s death, and this leaves a tragic imprint on Dina’s entire future life. But, unlike the Torah, Dina does not seem to be a victim: she has the strong character of a femme fatale, she does business on her own, and, at first glance, her life develops happily and successfully, but Dina is doomed to loneliness and self-destruction. This trilogy became a bestseller in Europe and Scandinavia, and on the basis of the first novel in 2002, the film was co-produced in the countries of Norway, Sweden , Denmark , Germany and France under the title “I am Dina” . Herbjörg Vassmu became one of the authors of the film script , and the main roles in the film were performed by such famous Scandinavian and European actors of theater and cinema as Maria Bonnevi , Pernilla August , Christopher Eccleston , Gerard Depardieu . The film was shown in many countries (including Russia ) and released on DVD.

Subsequently, Herbjörg Vassmu wrote the novels The Seventh Meeting ( 2001 ), Escape from Frank ( 2003 ), in which she also raises women's concerns about her, skillfully combining with a realistic description of modern Scandinavian reality.

In 2006, Herbjörg Wassmu wrote one of her toughest realistic novels A Glass of Milk, Please , in which the slave trade theme in the 21st century is raised and a wide panorama of modern Oslo life is given.

In 2009, in the novel “One Hundred Years,” the writer turned to the biography of her family and wrote a novel about three women whose life stories are closely linked with the history of northern Norway: about Sarah Susanna - her great-grandmother, who was a model angel behind the altar image of the Lofoten Cathedral , about Elide - her grandmother, the happiness of her whole life was a wholehearted love for her husband, and Jordis - her mother.

Herbjörg Vassmu also worked on radio shows , published a documentary novel and a picture book for children .

For her creative work, the writer has been awarded numerous prestigious national and foreign awards, including the Commander of the Order of St. Olaf ( 2007 ), Braga Prize (Honorary Award, 2010 ), and the holder of the French Order of Arts and Literature ( 2011 ). Herbjörg Vassmu books have gained international fame (especially the work of the writer is a great success in Denmark and Germany), translated into several languages ​​of the world and published in large editions.

In 2006, Herbjörg Vassmu visited the VIII International Book Fair of Intellectual Literature Non / fiction in Russia , where the work of the most important contemporary Norwegian writers was presented. Herbjörg Vassm’s work is well known to Russian readers, since, starting from 1993–1994 , many of her novels were repeatedly published in Russian in translation by the outstanding translator from the Scandinavian languages, Lyubov Grigoryevna Gorlina, in the journal Foreign Literature ( 1994 , No. 6), in the Russian book publishing houses "AST" , "Alphabet-Classic" , "Foreign" , "Word / Slovo", "Astrel", "Olymp - PPP", "B.S.G.-Press", and the trilogy "Dina" reprinted several times.

Novels

1. 1981 - House with a closed veranda (House with a glass veranda) ( Norwegian. Huset med den blinde glassveranda ) (first book of the Torah trilogy) ( Award of the Association of Norwegian Critics , 1981)
2. 1983 - Quiet Room ( Norwegian. Det stumme rommet ) (second book of the Torah trilogy)
3. 1986 - Bleeding Heaven ( Norwegian Hudløs himmel ) (third book of the Torah trilogy) ( Nordic Council Literary Prize , 1987)
4. 1989 - The Book of Dina ( Norwegian Dinas bok ) (the first book of the Dina Trilogy)
5. 1992 - The Son of Happiness ( Norwegian Lykkens sønn ) (second book of the Dina trilogy)
6. 1997 - The Carne Legacy ( Norwegian Karnas arv ) (the third book of the Dina trilogy)
7. 2001 - Seventh meeting ( Nor. Det sjuende møte )
8. 2003 - Escape from Frank ( Nor. Flukten fra Frank )
9. 2006 - A glass of milk, please ( Nor. Et glass melk takk )
10. 2009 - One Hundred Years ( Nor. Hundre år )

Poetry

1. 1976 - Flapping Wings ( Norwegian Vingeslag ) (collection of poems)
2. 1977 - Norwegian Flotid (collection of poems)
3. 1991 - Small green images in a large blue frame ( Norwegian Lite grønt bilde i stor blå ramme ) (collection of poems)

Miscellaneous

1. 1983 - Winter June ( Norwegian Juni-vinter ) (radio show)
2. 1984 - The Way (Keep It Up) ( Nor. Veien å gå ) (documentary novel)
3. 1985 - Norwegian Mellomlanding (radio show)
4. 1995 - Solo: four stories ( norway. Reiser: fire fortellinger ) (stories)
5. 1996 - Norwegian Hemmelig torsdag i treet (children's picture book)

1. “In Search of Dina” (selected chapters from the novel “The Son of Happiness”), Foreign Literature magazine, 1994, No. 6, translated from Norwegian and foreword by Lyubov Gorlina
2. "The Book of Dina" (the first book of the trilogy "Dina"); translator Love Gorlina ; 1993, publishing house “Olymp - PPP”; 1999, publishing house AST , ISBN 5-237-03107-2 ; 2002, Azbuka Classic , ISBN 5-352-00094-X
3. "Son of Happiness" (the second book of the Dina trilogy); translator L. Gorlina; 1999, ed. AST, ISBN 5-237-03106-4 ; 2002, ed. “ABC Classic”, ISBN 5-352-00095-8
4. Carne's Legacy (the third book of the Dina trilogy); translator L. Gorlina; 1999, ed. AST, ISBN 5-237-03110-2 ; 2002, ed. “ABC Classic”, ISBN 5-352-00093-1
5. "Seventh meeting"; translator L. Gorlina; 2003, ed. “Slovo / Slovo”, ISBN 5-85050-712-4
6. "Escape from Frank"; translator L. Gorlina; 2005, ed. B.SG.-Press, ISBN 5-93381-201-3
7. "A glass of milk, please"; translator L. Gorlina; 2008, ed. "Foreign" , ISBN 978-5-389-00104-6
8. "A hundred years"; translator L. Gorlina; 2008, ed. Astrel and Corpus, ISBN 978-5-271-30301-2

1. 1981 - Award of the Association of Norwegian Critics (for the novel “House with a closed veranda” (“House with a glass veranda”))
2. 1983 - Bookselling Award (for the novel "The Quiet Room")
3. 1986 - Nordland fylkes kulturpris award
4. 1987 - Nordic Literary Prize (for the novel “Bleeding Heaven”)
5. 1991 - Gildendal Prize
6. 1997 - Amalie Skram-prisen Award
7. 1998 - Prize named after Jean Monnet ( France )
8. 2004 - Eeva Joenpelto-prisen Prize ( Finland )
9. 2006 - Havmannprisen Award (for the novel “A glass of milk, please” )
10. 2007 - Commander of the Order of St. Olaf
11. 2010 - Braga Prize (Honorary Prize)
12. 2011 - Commander of the Order of Arts and Literature ( France )

•   Wikimedia Commons has media on Herbjörg Wassm
• Herbjörg Wassmu (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• Herbjörg Vassmu at NRK.no
• Herbjörg Vassmu at NRK.no (Kultur, Bok, 03/17/2011)
• Herbjörg Wassm on the Hildendal website
• Herbjörg Vassmu on Norsk biografisk leksikon
• Herbjörg Vassmu bibliography in the DNB catalog