Håkan Nesser awarded honorary doctorate at Örebro University
Swedish author Håkan Nesser has been awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy at Örebro University. The conferment will take place during the university’s annual academic celebration on 13 February. Håkan Nesser is awarded the honorary doctorate in response to his "experience of the realities of teaching and the Swedish school system in combination with his genuine skills in the art of writing and narration, making him an irreplaceable collaboration partner”.
”As a student of mathematics at University College of Örebro in the autumn of 1968, I was bottom of my class, there were no other contenders for the spot. It is therefore only natural that I needed nearly fifty years to become a doctor,” Håkan Nesser says, commenting on his appointment.
In connection with the awards ceremony, Håkan Nesser will give a lecture on the theme “The Narrative – the Backbone of Life". It is one of many popular-science lectures organised by Örebro University and given by researchers, honorary doctors and award winners. The lectures will take place on 13 February at Conventum convention hall in Örebro and are open to the public.
Award-winning author
Since his debut with the love story Koreografen (1988, The Choreographer), Håkan Nesser has written more than thirty novels. His books have been translated to more than thirty languages and have sold some 15 million copies. Several of his novels have been adapted for big and small screen productions.
Håkan Nesser has received numerous awards from various organisations and societies, including best detective novel, best crime novel, cultural awards, and the German Ripper Award. After his debut, Nesser wrote a series of ten novels about Chief Inspector Van Veteeren in the fictive European town of Maardam. He then introduced Chief Inspector Barbarotti in the fictive town of Kymlinge, following him in five novels.
Tension and suspension
In the novels Kim Novak badade aldrig i Genesarets sjö (1998, A Summer with Kim Novak) and Och Piccadilly Circus ligger inte i Kumla (2002, And Piccadilly Circus is not in Kumla), Håkan Nesser relates to his own childhood, growing up in Kumla, Sweden. Despite his ample literary output in addition to his detective and crime novels, he claims that the crime genre has always had a hold on him because of the tension and suspension that are prominent while reading these novels, as well as the presence of death which naturally opens up for the great existential questions. What is significant for his crime novels is that readers not only focus on the murder mystery but that their interest, to a great degree, is often linked to the characters themselves, their faith and struggles in life.
Translation: Charlotta Hambre-Knight
Photo: Caroline Andersson