Books / Interviews
Norwegian novelist writes new book in Bristol
Heidi Saevareid has a photo on her phone of her hanging from a ceiling with small metal hooks attached to her skin. It’s all in the name of her craft for this novelist, who says that she needs to experience something for herself before she writes about it.
It was a character in Saevareid’s second novel Slipp Hold, published last year, who was into the body suspension. For her third novel Slagside, the action is set in Bristol – and so, naturally, Saevareid has lived here for the last few months immersing herself in the life of the city.
And the violence. Because a character in the new book due to be published in her native Norway later this year enjoys beating people to a pulp.
“But I can’t go out and beat people up for research,” explains Saevareid, 32, who instead enrolled on a course in the Israeli close-combat martial art krav maga in Bedminster.
Bedminster is one of a number of Bristol settings in Slagside, a Norwegian nautical play on words which roughly translated means “off-balance”. Other city locations featured in the novel include Southville, Windmill Hill, Leigh Woods, Clifton, Stokes Croft and Gloucester Road.
Saevareid has also enjoyed hanging out in the Watershed, Arnolfini, Cafe Kino and the Canteen, and these are the locations where you’ll find her characters hanging out. “When I’m working, I try to take in the sounds I’m hearing, how the place feels,” she says. “All these details don’t necessarily make them into the book – but I need to know them.”
Slagside is a psychological thriller featuring a protagonist on her gap year who leaves Norway to escape her past and slips into a world of violence in Bristol. The book was originally meant to be set in Oslo but Saevareid had friends in Bath and was always fascinated by the sub-cultures within Bristol whenever she visited.
“Bristol is much more open than Oslo. Traditionally, Norwegians are known for being very reserved. When I came to Bristol I was immediately struck by how vibrant it is, how diverse it is. To me as an outsider, it feels gritty, it feels alive. Oslo just feels too polished.”
And what of the fighting? “I needed to get in touch with an aggression that I don’t naturally feel,” Saevareid says. “I wanted to push my character as far as I could.”
It could now take up to two years for Slagside to be translated into English and then be published in the UK. Saevareid laughs: “I would love my English friends to actually be able to read one of my books!”
Photo by Jelena Belec
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