Ingvar Ambjørnsen

Who is Ingvar Ambjørnsen?

Ingvar Even Ambjørnsen-Haefs is a Norwegian writer. He is best known for his "Elling" tetralogy: Utsikt til paradiset, Fugledansen, Brødre i blodet, and Elsk meg i morgen.

Brødre i blodet was turned into a successful movie, entitled Elling, which received an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Film category in 2001. The English translation of the novel is called Beyond the Great Indoors.

Born in Tønsberg and raised in Larvik, his debut novel was a semi-autobiography called 23-salen, in which he criticized Norway's efforts to take care of psychically challenged individuals. In all his novels he has spoken the outsiders' cause, as he did in his break-through novel Hvite Niggere in 1986. The novel is about a young man who leads a life somewhat on the edges of normal society.

He is also known for the youth's book series "Pelle og Proffen" which circles around two detective teenagers, getting involved in all kinds of mysteries or crimes involving drugs, pollution and neo-Nazism among other things. He started this project after having read some of Franklin W. Dixon's books about The Hardy Boys. The books Døden på Oslo S, Giftige Løgner, and De Blå Ulvene of this series were also turned into successful movies. In 2005 the book Drapene i Barkvik appeared, about the teenager Fillip Moberg attempting to solve an axe murder in a small Norwegian village.