Pushkin scoops two Norwegian books

Pushkin Press has acquired two Norwegian books from authors Marie Aubert and Jan Grue.

The first is billed by Pushkin as a "masterpiece" literary memoir I Live a Life Like Yours by Jan Grue. Laura Macaulay, deputy publisher at Pushkin, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Devon Mazzone at FSG.

Grue is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books, and is professor of qualitative research at the University of Oslo. "His brilliantly rendered I Live a Life Like Yours – a unique blend of memoir, fiction and criticism about living with congenital muscular dystrophy – won the Literary Critics Prize and has been nominated for The Nordic Council Prize 2019," Pushkins said. I Live a Life Like Yours will be published in spring 2021.

Meanwhile Aubert’s Grown Ups was described by the publisher as "a short, sharp novel about sibling rivalry, childlessness, and that feeling of panic which can take hold as middle age approaches and one’s options close in". Grown Ups is Aubert's first novel and rights have been sold in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Romania so far. Macaulay secured world English rights from Henrik Francke at Oslo Literary Agency. Pushkin have world English rights and will publish in spring 2021.

Macaulay said of the acquisitions: "Norway were the guest of honour at Frankfurt this year, but that’s sort of incidental – these are simply two of the most fresh, sharp and thrilling authors I’ve read, in any language, and I can’t wait to introduce them to UK readers."