Kjell Ola Dahl
The Courier

In 1942 the Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, and saves her life. Her family in Oslo is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm she meets the resistance hero Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and the suspicion of murdering his wife Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum appears to perish in a fire.

In 1967 Falkum shows up in Oslo, having been declared dead since 1943. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But why does he turn up only now, 25 years later? And what is the real reason for his return?

The events from the war catch up with Ester. She has also returned to Norway, having worked for the Israeli intelligence since the end of the war. Now she gets new information on Gerhard Falkum, information that forces her to take a new look at her past, and to revive her rusty combat skills.

Kjell Ola Dahl has written a very knowledgeable, intelligent and within the boundaries of fiction credible and reliable crime novel. […] an absolute top notch crime and suspense novel.

From the jury statement of The Riverton Prize jury

[…] a well written and evocative crime novel. […] As literary fiction it plays in a higher league than most crime novels.
5 out of 6 stars

Dagbladet

A sober and successful spy thriller, which gives associations to the black and white classic The Third Man. […] A solid comeback.

Dagens Næringsliv

Elegant and seamless. When you read a novel by Dahl, with or without the crime-prefix, you get the feeling of being in safe hands. That means quite a lot to the reader.

Aftenposten

Kjell Ola Dahl has written a solid crime … The tempo makes you read one more page and then one more and then another in order to get the answers. Because the author gives you no chance at all to figure out the answers on your own.
5 out of 6 stars

Nordjyske Stiftstidende

Whilst being very well entertained we also get a little wiser.
5 out of 6 stars

Fyens Stiftstidende

What makes this such a page-turner is the confluence of events leading up to and after the crime. A dark but richly described backdrop and a relentless, underlying tension drive this sad story to its bittersweet conclusion. Fans of Nordic noir will be satisfied.

Kjell Ola Dahl

Kjell Ola Dahl
Rolf M. Aagaard

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.

Rights sold to

FOREIGN SALES:
Denmark, Modtryk
Italy, Marsilio Editori
Germany, Bastei Lübbe
Slovakia, Premedia
Sweden, Bokfabriken
UK, Orenda Books

Other titles

The Last Fix (2000)
The Ice Swimmer (2011)

Foreign rights

Gyldendal Agency
P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass
NO-0130 Oslo
Tel: +47 957 81 640
[email protected]
http://eng.gyldendal.no

Awards

Winner of the Brage Prize
Winner of the Riverton Prize

Edited July 26, 2019 by Gyldendal Agency