Traces of Gothic Fiction in Scandinavian Crime Fiction: A Study of Jo Nesbø’s Oslo Trilogy by Jaroslav Giza
This is a very welcome study of one of the key texts in modern Scandinavian crime fiction, which perfectly balances scholarship with readability, along with a forensic analysis of how the author Jo Nesbø achieves his effects. Giza’s strategy also incorporates a consideration of the influence of Gothic fiction on the Nordic Noir genre. Books such as The Devil’s Star (2003), the lacerating The Redbreast (2000) and, more recently, the massively successful The Snowman (2010) established Nesbø as one of the most trenchant and idiosyncratic writers of modern crime fiction. Inevitably, of course, it is his formidable narrative skills which have made him such a ringer-of-tills. Nesbø’s appeal may also be attributed to the fact that his books appear to communicate salient, caustic facts about modern society, giving them a kind of added value alongside their considerable expertise as pieces of literary entertainment. By describing the sometimes-seismic changes in Scandinavian society, Nesbø is perceived as throwing a spotlight on the dangerous, conflicting world which we all live in; and his books address unpalatable truths about aspects of society that are not being tackled in anything but crime fiction.
Jaroslav Giza’s insights into the massively popular work of Nesbø is matched by his analysis as to how the tropes of Gothic fiction may be discerned – in refracted form – in Nesbø’s work. It’s truly one of the key modern texts in an area which is finally achieving the kind of critical response that has always been its due.
Photo: Jo Nesbo talks to Barry Forshaw
Jaroslaw Giza may be contacted at jaroslaw.giza@gmail.com and the book can be purchased at: http://wydawnictwo.ans-ns.edu.pl/index.php/publikacje/2025
