The Water's Edge

"Fossum is Norwegian and she’s very intense. When you meet her she’s very intense. She writes about these small communities and she writes beautifully. It’s beautiful language and the translation’s really good. She’s good on the rippling out from tragedy. So a child is killed and she writes about the ramifications, the effect on other people in the community. Again she has a male detective who sorts it out. I’ve got two different series, one male detective and one middle-aged female who’s overweight and can’t run. I wanted to do something different. The Fossum is very Scandinavian, this big landscape, a bit snowy, people walking along the edge of a lake. And in this one they find a body and the book is about how that affects their lives. They didn’t have a good relationship to begin with but after this it sort of fractures more. The guy enjoys being a minor celebrity and giving interviews and he takes a picture of the body with his phone. And she is disgusted by this. But you can imagine, can’t you, how someone might behave like that? And they were witnesses and saw someone who might have been the murderer walking away. It’s this bleak, snowy, wild space and it’s more than a backdrop, I think. It really affects the people that grow out of that landscape, and the landscape. Yes. I’m sure it is. Fossum is a poet. She was shortlisted for the Crime Writer’s Association Golden Dagger Award in 2005. I won in 2006 for Raven Black. That year they began an international award for translated fiction, which doesn’t usually get included in the main awards. It’s good because it recognises the author but also the translator as well."