We’re proud to announce that Frode Helland has been nominated for this year’s Brage Prize for Nonfiction, Norway’s most prestigious literary award, for his extraordinary book Holocaust – A history told by the victims. This is a deeply moving and illuminating contribution to our understanding of one of history’s darkest chapters.
The Brage jury writes:
“It is said that truth is the first casualty of war, but who documents what happens when someone tries to erase all traces of your existence?
The first to write about the Holocaust were the victims themselves… Helland brings readers close to the events, letting those affected tell how individuals experienced life and death under a totalitarian regime. His narrative skill and dedication not only bring new understanding and knowledge, but also place the story of the Norwegian Holocaust within a broader European context.”
Helland’s book reminds us that the earliest witnesses of the Holocaust were not historians, but the victims themselves. Across Europe, Jewish writers documented their annihilation in letters, diaries, and eyewitness accounts — often as events unfolded.
“The duty to describe my experiences is like a fire trapped in my bones, burning in me, crying: describe!” wrote Chaim Kaplan in his Warsaw ghetto diary before he was murdered in Treblinka in 1942. Helland’s book offers the first comprehensive Norwegian account of the Holocaust as an international catastrophe — from the Nazis’ rise to power to the survivors’ first postwar years — told through the eyes and words of those who lived it.
Holocaust. A History Told by the Victims is both harrowing and humane, scholarly and deeply personal.
It draws us close to the individuals behind the incomprehensible numbers — and allows their voices to be heard once more.
Warm congratulations to Frode Helland and Forlaget Press on this Brage Prize nomination!
Norway’s largest independent literary agency, Northern Stories, has been named a Gazelle Company by Dagens Næringsliv for the second consecutive year. In 2024, the agency grew its turnover from NOK 10.2 to 15.8 million – an increase of more than 50 percent, marking yet another record year.
We’re delighted to share that Agnes Ravatn has been nominated for the Booksellers’ Award 2025 for her brilliant new novel Doggerland. Her novel is also already sold to Poland, and in World English.
Northern Stories has hired Dilani Vamapahan as a literary agent. She was chosen from a pool of 175 applicants.
“A great honour,” says Kristofer Hivju about playing police investigator Ole Vik in the crime series Sogn Murders. The TV2 series is based on Jørgen Jæger’s bestselling books, and filming started this week in Sogn.
Northern Stories increased its revenue from NOK 10.2 million to NOK 15.8 million in 2024 – and was simultaneously named a Gazelle Company by Dagens Næringsliv.
“We continue to grow in markets that remain challenging,” says founder Astrid Dalaker.