Photographer: Johannes Jansson/norden.org

This is what the Adjudicating Committee had to say:

“In a gentle, precise and thoughtful prose Lindstrøm relates how a dramatic past slowly breaks into an elderly woman’s life and consciousness.”

Merethe Lindstrøm was born in Bergen in 1963. She made her debut with the collection of short stories “Sexorcisten og andre fortellinger” in 1983.

A characteristic of Merethe Lindstrøm‘s writing is her focus on modern people’s quest for others and for meaning.  She was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2008 for her collection of short stories “Gjestene” (2007).

“Dager i stillhetens historie” (“Days in the History of Silence”) (2011) is her latest novel for which she was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for best adult literary work.

Merethe Lindstrøm, winner of Nordic Litteraturprize 2012. Foto: Mats Køber.

This year there were 14 different authors from the Nordic countries and Greenland, Åland, the Faroe Islands and the Sami Language Area on the list of nominees for the prize
.

The Nordic Council Literature Prize is worth DKK 350,000.

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The Nominations for 2012 were:

The national members of the Adjudicating Committee had nominated the following works for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2012. The winner will be chosen by the Adjudicating Committee at its meeting in Reykjavik in the spring of 2012. The prize is worth 350,000 Danish kroner
.