Erika Fatland was born in 1983 and studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her 2011 book, The Village of Angels, was an in situ report on the Beslan terror attacks of 2004 and she is also the author of The Year Without Summer, describing the harrowing year that followed the massacre on Utoya in 2011. For Sovietistan (2019) she was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford/Lonely Planet Debut Travel Writer of the Year, and The Border (2020) was shortlisted for the Stanfords Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2020. She speaks eight languages and lives in Oslo with her husband.
The strength of Fatland's second travel book lies in its ability to make history come alive through stories . . . Well-informed, precise, astute in its restraint, entertaining, balanced and not without the occasional dose of gentle irony - every chapter written by this border-crosser, who doesn't shy away from any ordeal, is captivating reading. - Sueddeutsche Zeitung Truly a masterly performance . . . The book has so many qualities that it is impossible to mention them all. Fatland masters the genre to perfection . . . The Border transcends all borders. Reading it is a true delight. - Aftenposten Masterly . . . A Norwegian Marco Polo . . . The lines of force of history become clear thanks to this thorough and well-written book by one of our best and most original young nonfiction authors. - Dagbladet The Border is like a kinderegg, it is a travel book, a history book, and a biography of people we normally do not hear much about but to whom we become close through Fatland's long Odyssey. - V.G.