Torborg Nedreaas

Who was Torborg Nedreaas?

Torborg Nedreaas was a Norwegian author who debuted with the collection of short stories Bak skapet står øksen in 1945. The majority of the stories centered on events and interactions during the Second World War. It was not war literature, but an examination of the occurrences and situations which the war created for people who were not directly involved in the war, but who nonetheless paid a high price because they lived in an occupied country. During the war and afterwards until 1947 she lived in Leirvik in Hordaland. Then she relocated to Nesodden in Akershus. She trained as a music teacher, but wrote a series of novels, novellas, plays and pieces for television. Many of her books were set in the environment and in settings from Leirvik, where she spent many summers in her childhood. Class differences and poverty are central themes that permeate her work.

Her work was recognized with numerous prizes, including both the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and in 1972 she was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize.