Writing about life

During his long career as an author, Thorvald Steen has been particularly well-known for his historical novels. In recent years, however, he has increasingly derived his subject matter from his own life and family history, as in Det hvite badehuset and Det siste fotografiet.

Why fictionalise something which really happened? And how can one write close to the truth when the genre is regarded as fiction? In this conversation with Berit Bareksten, Steen talks about illness, life and experience, and how literature is created.

In Norwegian.