Nordic countries showcase world-changing literature

Being among the nominees for the prize brings recognition to the authors, as their works are translated and published in the languages of the other Nordic countries. It also means a busy year for the authors, as they are invited to literary events, presentations, festivals and book fairs throughout the region.

Six of this year's nominees – Ida Jessen from Denmark for Børnene (The Children), Sofi Oksanen from Finland for Puhdistus (Purge), Monika Fagerholm from Finland for Glitterscenen (The Glitter Scene), Karl Ove Knausgård from Norway for Min kamp 1 (My Struggle, Part 1), Steve Sem-Sandberg from Sweden for De fattiga i Łódź (The Destitutes of Lodz) and Einar Kárason from Iceland for Ofsi (Rage) – presented their novels to a huge audience at the Nordic Institute in Finland last week, reading excerpts and discussing the state of contemporary literature in their countries.

Not surprisingly, the authors considered themselves to be Nordic writers. Kárason explained that they shared a common heritage, mythology and linguistic space. Knausgård said that literature is a phenomenon that crosses borders and which allows him to read Swedish, Finnish-Swedish and Danish works in their original languages. Sem-Sandberg stated that authors can feel like Nordic writers even when they deliberately set the action of their work outside of the Nordic region, as in the case of his novel The Destitutes of Lodz, which is a collective telling of the Jewish ghetto in the Polish city during the years of Nazi occupation in World War II.

Nordic readers are not afraid of doorstop storytelling: lengthy works – trilogies, for example – are characteristic of contemporary Nordic literature. Jessen's The Children forms part of a trilogy, although each book in the series can be read independently of the others. Knusgård's work, meanwhile, is the first in a six-book series titled My Struggle. Four books have so far been published in the series, which tells the story of the author's life, over more than 2000 pages. Knusgård says that writing, for him, is escapism; a withdrawal, as he attempts to depict life as it is, not how it should be.

Fagerholm's The Glitter Scene is a sequel to her 2004 novel Amerikanska flickan (The American Girl): a transformation in which the author explains and amends the action and events of the original story. At the same time, the book can easily be read as a standalone story. The author says that in the sequel she tries to reach a conclusion as to what really happens to truth and historical awareness.

Critics have praised Fagerholm's linguistic palette, describing her novels as forms of artistic expression which generate a unique world. The author says that what is important to her is the language hiding inside her, and the rhythm and melody it creates – how else can you depict sadness, death or any condition which there are no words to describe. Speaking of literature generally, Fagerholm says: "Literature isn't about simply asking questions and seeking answers to them any more – it can change the world."

Language plays its own part in the work of Sofi Oksanen, too. She says that literature is formed in the process of writing: language creates people and breathes life into them. As an author who is especially sensitive to language, she strives to bring the musicality concealed within Kalevala to the prose form.

There are a lot of lines connecting contemporary literature in the Nordic countries. There has long been a great deal of interest in historical novels. Those that span generations are written and read in both Iceland and Finland. Oksanen and Fagerholm agree that young Finnish prose writers and poets have been making their mark more and more in recent years, and that a wealth of female authors in the region's literature is now the norm, rather than a marginal phenomenon.

Crime as a genre remains as popular and successful in the Nordic countries as ever. Print-runs and copyright sales to foreign countries are impressive. In recent years Denmark has witnessed a boom in the publishing of autobiographies. Jessen contemplated a sensitive subject: how far an author can go in their writing; where the ethical line is allowing them to or preventing them from invading other people's lives and depicting their experiences and suffering.

Einar Kárason is a writer who is continuing the noble tradition of Nordic storytelling. Having penned six books set in the present day, he decided to attempt an historical novel. He did not want to retell history – instead he wanted to write a book that would be unlike any historical novel that had gone before it. In writing it he focussed on what people today and those living 25 generations ago in the 13th century could have in common.

Estonian audiences will soon be able to hear the Grand Master in person: Kárason will be appearing and presenting at the Tallinn Literature Festival in May 2010.

A fascinating two hours of discussion among these six very different authors in Helsinki was attended by Eha Vain, a cultural adviser with the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia.