We meet Zeshan Shakar at Oslo City Hall. This is where he works on a daily basis, mainly with the education sector in the city. A true bureaucrat. The writing usually takes place in the evening after work. It’s heavy, but worth it. For today, Shakar is one of Norway’s most recognized contemporary authors and winner of the Booksellers Prize. The award is voted for by everyone who works in Norwegian bookstores. Kirsti Myrvold, bookseller and owner of Berges Bokhandel in Kristiansand, was among those who voted for Shakar as the winner. – Shakar deserves this year’s award for the way he ends the trilogy about his class trip, says Myrvold. She says that the book paints a warm, humorous and painful portrait of the father-son relationship, and of what parents leave behind for their children when they disappear. – It will be a kind of quiet tribute to the parents’ lives and hard-working everyday life. A lovely story about the many lives that are lived in this country. They call me the wolf is the third and last book in his trilogy about the class journey of the many characters and people in Norway. Photo: Siamak Nematpoor / news The end of a class trip Shakar says that he primarily writes for people he has grown up with in his own family and where he comes from. That is why he is constantly surprised that those stories can be read and liked by people all over Norway. – It is touching that a story about something as specific as a Pakistani man moving back to Pakistan can resonate so widely. Something universal and human in that, says Shakar. Zeshan Shakar works daily at Oslo City Hall. It is there that news meets the author to talk about the Booksellers Prize. Photo: Jon Petrusson / news His debut novel “Tante Ulrikkes vei” (2017) quickly became an audience favourite. He was awarded Tarjei Vesaas’ debutant prize and the book sold over 160,000 copies. In 2020, his second novel, “Yellow Book”, came out. “They call me the wolf” is his third and last book in what he describes as a trilogy. – It is a project where you follow a class journey in different stages. The main characters in Tante Ulrikke’s Way are locally rooted in Drabantbyen, they are young. In Gul bok he is a little older and is about to enter working life and in the last book the main character is established; the class trip is over, says the author. The forgotten generation Shakar grew up in Stovner with a father from Pakistan and a Norwegian mother. Although the books are not about him, there is much from his own life that characterizes the stories he tells. Something he missed growing up. – When I was younger, I missed going to a bookstore and finding books with stories about people who looked like me and the people around me. It felt like it didn’t exist. While Norway has gradually become familiar with our stories, we have looked past the stories of our parents’ generation, says Shakar. He calls them the forgotten generation. These are the ones he wants to tell in the last book. – We don’t really know their stories very well. I think it’s time they were told, says Shakar.
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Zeshan Shakar receives the Bokhandlerprisen 2022 – news Culture and entertainment
