After long discussions and several votes, the result from the listening jury is clear. “Odel” by Dordi Strøm has won the Lyttaranes novel prize 2023. Hear the blink of an eye when Strøm learns that her novel won the hearts of the listening jury: The jury of regular readers has delved into six nominated books, heard from the authors and discussed among themselves which novel was the best best in 2023. “Odel” kicked off an extensive conversation. – She writes bloodily and strictly realistically about animal killing and slaughter, while in the next blink of an eye she spins dreams and adventures in a girl’s mind, wrote literary reviewer Anne Cathrine Straume when the book was mentioned on publication. Photo: Samlaget Magical, brutal, sensitive, fluent – At the end of the book, I feel like going back to the beginning, smiled jury member Maria Othelie Underdal during the discussions. Torgrim Hermansen Halvari, who has a Sami, Swedish and Finnish background, also found a lot to examine in “Odel”. The story is not clearly geographically located in Norway. It creates its own associations for the reader. Whether there is something happening in Finnmark or whether it is at Finnskogen is not easy to place, but neither is it important, he said. The different parts of the story mean that the experience of the novel changes based on the reader. The author also had this in mind when working on the book. Dordi Strøm said ahead of the discussions that she thinks of the reader as one person in a theater audience. – It is an exclusive, intimate situation. That one reader sits with my vision in his lap, and makes it his own. It is an enormous privilege. Who is the listening jury? Every year, news invites readers who enjoy reading from all over the country to take part in the work of evaluating six finalists. This year’s jury consists of Sindre Laksemo, Hilde Lundestad, Torgrim Hermansen Halvari, Maria Othelie Underdal and Marius Handegard Økland. They come from different parts of the country, have completely different jobs and are spread out in age. The five met at the beginning of February to summarize their experiences. THE LISTENING JURY: Back from left are Sindre Laksemo, Hilde Lundestad, Torgrim Hermansen Halvari. On the bench are Marius Handegard Økland and Maria Othelie Underdal. Photo: Kristin Molvær / news – We are not literary analysts in any way, says Halvari. He points out that it is people who interest him. Økland agrees and says that there are books that “live in me” that make a particularly good novel a little more than a story. – We have read six books, all of which are very good. So for me this was a main criterion during the jury work: What book will come to me the day after I have read it? The answer to that question was “Odel” by Dordi Strøm – the winner of the Lyttaranes novel prize 2023. The Lyttaranes novel prize The Lyttaranes novel prize is a Norwegian literature prize. The prize is awarded annually by news. A jury of experts in the literature editor at news nominates six books. A listening jury of five reads all the books and votes for their favourite. The jury discussion takes place on radio and podcasts. In the end, the jury is left with three titles that receive points. The one with the most points is named prize winner for a literary publication from the previous year. The first time the prize was awarded was in 1998.
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