An Evening with Jo Nesbo

An Evening with Jo Nesbo
The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, August 23, 2011

His novels are dark, his murders are graphic and his hero, Harry Hole, is a drunk. And yet two Jo Nesbo books are currently sold every minute. Why on earth are Scandinavian crime writers so popular? One of the questions that Mark Billingham, himself an acclaimed crime writer, put to Jo in an hour long interview at a packed West End cinema, earlier this week.

Nesbo was refreshingly honest in his response. “I’d like to think that it was the quality of the stories and the depth of the research” he said citing, among others, Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson and Peter Hoeg. Nesbo, won the celebrated, Glass Key Award for (best Nordic novel) for his very first book back in 1997, The Batman, whichstrangely, like his second, Cockroaches, has yet to be translated into English.

Equally compelling though are the unfamiliar backdrops and remote locations with strange sounding names. Holidaying westerners still avoid Scandinavia turning south in search of guaranteed sun. The deeply flawed characters are similarly intriguing; Mankell’s Wallender is divorced, lonely and unable to commit; Larsson’s Salander is anti-social and psychotic and Hole himself is a mess, a chain-smoking alcoholic in constant conflict with both himself and his colleagues. But it is what they lack that makes them work, gives them depth and makes them human.

Nesbo might never have written novels. Born in 1960 in Oslo, he seemed destined to play football until serious injuries to both his knees. After graduating from the Norwegian School of Economics, he drove a taxi (which he liked) and worked in stockbroking (which he didn’t) while simultaneously singer-song writing in a successful, Norwegian rock band, di Derrre. Stockbroking by day and gigs by night finally took its toll and Nesbo took time out to reflect on what to do. He went to Thailand and wrote The Batman and the rest is, as they say, history. Nine Harry Holes have followed – The Ghost is due for UK publication next year – but Harry is not immortal – “I have had the ending planned since the very start”.

This is a man who simply doesn’t waste time. His latest book, Headhunters, is a standalone novel about an accomplished art thief and will be published next week with a movie soon to follow. At long last Nesbo has reluctantly - “This is like putting my baby on the bus to the big city for the first time” sold the film rights of The Snowman. Working Title expect to start production later this year.

We should enjoy Nesbo while we can since this talented, hard-working and very likeable man simply refuses to stand still. Whatever he does next, he will surely do it well.
Richard Smith Morgan
August 2011