Jo Nesbø is a famous Norwegian writer, reporter, musician, economist, and former soccer player. Although Nesbø has participated in a variety of fields, he is most known for his crime novels, his most notable work being the Harry Hole series. Some of his best selling crime novels include The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son, and The Thirst. Since being published, he has sold over 3 million copies of his novels in Norway alone, with over 50 million copies worldwide in 50 different languages.
Before his writing career, Nesbø played for Norway’s premier football league team Molde, but his career ended abruptly after an injury to his knee when he was just 18. After this, he graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics and worked as a financial analyst and stock broker. It was during this time that he formed the band Di derre in which they became a huge hit in Norway. It was when he was commissioned to write a memoir about his life on the road with his band that Nesbø instead decided to come up with the plot of his first Harry Hole crime novel.
Nesbø writes that he had come from a family of readers and storytellers and had loved reading from a young age. So when he was asked to write a memoir, it “engendered a whole new way of thinking and I realized I was ready to take the leap and write a novel” (as quoted from Nesbø). The majority of the Harry Hole series was drafted up on Nesbø’s laptop on a flight from Oslo to Sydney. In the fall of 1997, Nesbø’s first novel, The Bat was published.
In honour of his literary works, Nesbø has won a variety of awards including, The Ricerton Prize for Best Norwegian Crime Novel of the Year, The Norwegian Book Club Prize for Best Novel of the Year, and more. In addition to his novel writing, he has also participated in the writing for TV and film. Some of his most known work includes Headhunters, The Snowman, and Okkupert.
Click here for Jo Nesbø’s official website
Nesbø's Bibliography
Novels
- The Harry Hole novels (1997 – 2019)
- The Doctor Proctor novels (2008 – 2017)
- The Olav Johansen novels (2015)
Stand-alone works
- Karusellmusikk (2001) – Short stories
- The White Hotel (2007)
- Headhunters (2008)
- The Son (2014)
Click here for Nesbø’s complete bibliography on Wikipedia
