Norway, Obama, and the love of books, by Matt Haig

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My surreal moment of last week occurred in Oslo, when I was over there to promote the Norwegian edition of The Labrador Pact (the hardback of which Viking are publishing in March). I was walking down the street with Hakon, my very polite - and exceptionally tall - Norwegian publicist. He nudged me and drew my attention to one of the shops we were passing. There, in the window of Oslo's largest bookstore was a stack of books piled right next to a stack of Barak Obama's. Now, it's a rare enough occurrence for me to make any window display, but to find myself shoulder-to-shoulder with the potential future of Western democracy was a rather humbling sight.

It says a lot about Norway, too. Although the average Norwegian might say they belong to an ‘insular' country, the use of the term would cause a lot of scratching of British and American foreheads. Norway, by any standards is an outward looking country.

Maybe it's because of their small population (4.7 million). Maybe it's because they devour books (the average Norwegian buys twelve a year - only Iceland beats that record). Maybe it's because, as Sweden's unofficial ‘little brother' they understand that most of the action is always going on somewhere else. But it was still surprising to see a book by an American politician and a lowly British author colonising the window display.

But as I said, Norway is an outward-looking country. The average Norwegian probably knows as much about the events of Super Tuesday, or the rather less-stimulating goings on at Westminster, as the average politically-minded Brit or American. Yet how many of us has a clue who the Norwegian prime minister is? So, being from such a small country must alter your perspective.

The most inspiring thing I found in Norway though, is the way books are never part of ‘snob' culture. They are culture, period. While I was there I was interviewed by the two main tabloid newspapers for double-page articles. My initial thought was - why? I mean, in the UK our tabloids don't even get around to covering actual ‘news' let alone any form of culture that stretches beyond a celebrity falling out of a club. So okay, the journalists I met were more interested in Brad Pitt buying the film option for The Labrador Pact than the book itself, but that's par for the course.

In Norway the best-selling newspaper VG (with a circulation of half a million - a staggering amount given the size of the population) devotes two pages to books, one more to theatre, as well as including meaty discussions on film and music. The distinction that rules the UK book industry, between ‘literary' and ‘commercial' fiction hardly exists. A book is a book is a book, and each is judged on its own merits. And in Norway this approach to literature means no-one feels shut out. Books contain stories and they interest everyone, from party-bopping teens to the villagers up in the mountains.

So while none of us could be expected to take as avid interest in Norwegian politics as they take in ours, the Norwegian attitude to books is certainly one worth exploring. I certainly wish I'd taken more interest in the Norwegian book industry before I'd gone out there, especially as I was always asked who my favourite Norwegian author was.

‘Erm... I...er...well...does Roald Dahl count?'

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