When Jo Nesbø wants to do something he shouldn't, he thinks Barcelona is much bigger than his native Oslo. He doesn't say it because of its fame or any milestone the city has starred in, but because of a personal anecdote. A few years ago, without further detail, the Norwegian writer was in the Catalan capital with some friends and one of them fell in love with a local. The problem was that she had a boyfriend. Despite this small detail, "a weekend love" was forged and the farewell eventually arrived. She told him to meet for dinner, but Nesbø's friend was worried about being caught. "Barcelona is big," said the girl, who forever remained the excuse to justify the slips and tricks of the group of friends, perhaps also of the famous detective created by the author, Harry Hole.
This is how Nesbø began his thanks for having received the Pepe Carvalho Prize, framed within the celebration of the BCNegra literature festival. The Norwegian writer joins a list made up of names such as Leonardo Padura, Don Winslow, Joyce Carol Oates, Claudia Piñeiro, Donna Leon, Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Petros Márkaris, Andreu Martín, Michael Connelly, Henning Mankell and, how could it be otherwise, Andrea Camilleri, a faithful admirer of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. "He was one of the writers who paved the way for modern crime fiction in Europe and opened doors for authors like me," Nesbø explained. And he did not forget to insist: "I am very happy to come from a small city to one as big as this to receive the prize."
The jury of the 19th edition of the award highlighted the writer's unique style, always guaranteeing more than one subplot in each novel. "They are thrillers in which things are always happening," defended the president of the jury, Carlos Zanón. In addition, he added, he is one of the greatest exponents of Norwegian crime fiction, "making us look at the cracks and sewage of a society that we believe to be paradisiacal." In that sense, for Nesbø, who has been cultivating the genre for more than 20 years, these mystery or murder stories serve to write about the individual's relationship with current society and the moral issues that define it: "Crime fiction has replaced religious literature." And, furthermore, as a narrator, it allows establishing "an intimate relationship with the reader to manipulate them."
Nesbø has taken advantage of his visit to Barcelona to promote his latest book, The Night House (Reservoir Books/Edicions Proa), where he delves into the horror genre with a young adult story that feeds on itself and grows page by page, with more than one scare. "It means going back to my roots. When I was little, I was the one who told stories in my group of friends, all older, because they noticed the fear in my voice," he explained. The novel makes one feel multiple nightmares, from the most typical like abandoned houses to killer phones and humans turned into insects, with nods to American culture and high school parties that never end well. "My imagination takes me to places where I am very scared. I feel that it is the engine of my writing," he remarked.
Asked about how many lives his Harry Hole has left, the writer did not want to reveal anything. "If I told you, I would have to kill you," he said, resorting to his classic answer when asked about the future of his detective, as he already did a year ago at the presentation of Eclipse (Reservoir Books/Edicions Proa), the thirteenth title in the saga starring a character whom Nesbø defines as "that friend you don't call on Monday after having spent a few days with him." "He hates Oslo but doesn't think about leaving, as happened to Pepe Carvalho with Barcelona. What gives him identity is his prison. Harry Hole has all the arguments for us not to like him, but, like us, he is a lone wolf who doesn't know how to get home," Zanón added, in fan mode, as he emphasized.