Kopperud, Gunnar 1946–

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Kopperud, Gunnar 1946–

PERSONAL:

Born 1946, in Norway. Education: Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England; University of Oslo, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Norway.

CAREER:

Novelist. Worked as a journalist for the Associated Press and Dagbladet (Norwegian newspaper); war correspondent, mainly in Africa, until 1999.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

Lysets Tid, Stenersen (Oslo, Norway), 1998, translated from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally as The Time of Light, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2001.

Savn, Stenersen (Oslo, Norway), 1999, translation from the Norwegian by Tom Geddes published as Longing, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2002.

Politikapteinens Fange (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 2003, translated from the Norwegian by Christopher Jamieson as The Backpacker's Father, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2006.

Innvielse (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 2005.

Internasjonalen (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gunnar Kopperud is a Norwegian novelist who has had several works translated and published in English. His books have philosophical overtones and often take place in war-torn areas, reflecting the author's background as a war correspondent. Kopperud's first published book was Lysets Tid, which appeared in English translation as The Time of Light. It is a "remarkable first novel," according to Frank Caso in his Booklist review. The story concerns three friends who all served as German soldiers in the invasion of Russia in 1941. Each of them is captured. Their destinies all play out in different ways, in East Germany and the Soviet Union, but there are also parallels between them. What happened is told, in part, by one of the soldiers in a conversation, years later, with an Armenian priest; to him, the ex-soldier confesses the war atrocities in which he took part. His crimes include setting fire to a church full of civilians, and taking part in the rape and murder of an innocent girl. The detailed scenes of war alternate with passages that are more philosophical and historical in nature. Overall, the narrative is infused with cynicism and evokes the fears, hatreds, and violence that were part of the twentieth century. Kopperud's book is "witty and philosophical," and "offers no pat ending" to give meaning to the violence it evokes, stated Caso. A Publishers Weekly writer described the novel as "dreamlike" and a "moving modernist meditation on German war guilt and the fundamental nature of good and evil."

Longing, the English translation of Kopperud's novel Savn, is another story steeped in suffering. The protagonists in this story have no names, but one of them, like Kopperud, is a journalist. This man begins a love affair with a freedom fighter from North Africa during wartime, but when peace settles over the region, their relationship comes apart. The woman is glad to have some sense of normal life returned, but the reporter has become accustomed to witnessing human struggle and suffering, and feels the need to go on doing so. Sent by his editor to a string of exotic places with the assignment of reporting on man's dreams, the writer concludes that men have always wanted immortality, peace, and power, but that these things are continually elusive; and that people create utopian myths simply to transcend the difficult circumstances of life. "Kopperud has a philosophy student's weakness for spiraling, unanswerable rhetorical queries," noted Bryan Walsh in his Time International review. Walsh described the book's overall tone as "meditative."

In another of Kopperud's novels, which was translated and published in English as The Backpacker's Father, a man named Francisco is searching for his daughter, who has gone missing while on a backpacking trip in the Spice Islands. While looking for her, he is shipwrecked, along with two journalists. Thanks to the fact that he has a passing acquaintance with the president of Indonesia, Francisco finds himself caught up in a power struggle between the Muslim army colonel and the Christian chief of police on the island. Violent death is a part of daily life there, and Christian and Muslim factions are bent on destroying each other. The story serves to show how inadequate Western understanding of ancient conflicts can be, and to show how harmful outside intervention into such conflicts can be, even if it is well intended. Andrea Kempf, a reviewer for Library Journal, called it "powerful" and "stark." A Publishers Weekly writer called The Backpacker's Father a "dour meditation on loss and culture clash" rendered in "luminous, honest prose."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2000, Frank Caso, review of The Time of Light, p. 1994.

Library Journal, June 15, 2000, Marc Kloszewski, review of The Time of Light, p. 116; June 15, 2007, Andrea Kempf, review of The Backpacker's Father, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, July 3, 2000, review of The Time of Light, p. 50; June 11, 2007, review of The Backpacker's Father, p. 38.

Time International, July 15, 2002, Bryan Walsh, review of Longing, p. 50; August 12, 2002, Bryan Walsh, review of Longing, p. 56.

Times Literary Supplement, May 17, 2002, Caroline Maclean, review of Longing, p. 21.