Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805. His Fairy Tales, the first children's stories of their kind, which were published in instalments from 1835 until his death in 1875, have been translated into more than a hundred languages and adapted for every kind of media.

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first novel, Out of the World, was the first ever debut novel to win the Norwegian Critics Prize and his second, A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven, was widely acclaimed.

A Death in the Family, the first of the My Struggle cycle of novels, was awarded the prestigious Brage Prize.

The My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world.

Vigdis Hjorth is the author of over a dozen prize-winning and bestselling novels. Will and Testament sold 150,000 copies in Norway and has received several awards, including the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, as well as being nominated for the National Book Award and Nordic Council Literature Prize. She lives in Oslo.