Vigdis Hjorth (born 1959) is a Norwegian author and MA in History of Ideas, Political Science and Literature, and she also studied Literary History. She has worked for NRK Barneradioen and has been the editor of Barnetimeboka.
Vigdis Hjorth’s 20th novel, Arv og miljø (“Heritage and Environment”) published in 2016, begins with a recognizable dilemma: As the father dies, disagreement arises as to how the cabins in the family are to be distributed among the four surviving siblings. The concrete conflict about an inheritance that has been pounding in the family for many years soon swirls to the surface and becomes crucial when the story of the family and the father’s position is to be written for posterity. Hjorth treats a significant societal problem – sexual abuse against children and the harmful effects that can last for life. The excitement of the novel is not so much about the disclosure of what actually happened, but more about the protagonist’s struggle with her own story and how deeply the battle of truth can affect the most everyday situations and the closest relationships.
Since her debut in 1983, Vigdis Hjorth has through essays, articles, children’s books and novels developed one of the strongest authorships in contemporary Norwegian literature. Her authorship reaches a preliminary high point with Arv og miljø, which in 2017 was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize.
The conversation, led by Sunna Dís Másdóttir, Project Manager at Borgarbókasafn Reykjavíkur, is in Scandinavian.