About me 

I was born in Haugesund in 1983 and grew up in Ølen, a small town in Western Norway. I left Ølen as soon as I could, and attended secondary school in Lyon and Helsinki. Since then I have traveled. And written. I'm married to author Erik Fosnes Hansen and occasionally visit him in our apartment in Oslo.

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I am a trained social anthropologist, but have never had a proper job. In 2009 I made my debut with the children's book «Foreldrekrigen» at Cappelen Damm. Two years later came "The Angel City", a documentary about the hostage drama at School No. 1 in Beslan in 2004. In 2012 I published "The year without summer", a book about the terrorist act by Anders Behring Breivik at Utøya, Norway. In 2017, I published "The Winter War", a climate thriller for children, illustrated by Marius Renberg.  

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In recent years, I have mainly written travel books. In 2014 «Sovietistan» was published and three years later «The Border. A Journey Around Russia» was published. In 2020 "High Up. A Journey through the Himalayas" was released. My books have been translated into 26 languages and have won a number of awards at home and abroad.

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I speak English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and am learning Portuguese and Arabic.