“Books stir feelings, open horizons, foster awareness, and create pictures in our minds”. – Bertel Geismar Haarder, Minister for Culture of Denmark

Books stir feelings, open horizons, foster awareness, and create pictures in our minds. The world of literature gives us the experience of emotions, of apprehension and delight. ‘Great’ literature is known for arousing great emotions.
Here in the Nordic countries, we are in a Golden Age when it comes to the variety of Nordic literature. We celebrate this every year when the Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded. Most recently, the Norwegian author Jon Fosse received the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his work Trilogien (The Trilogy): Andvake (Sleepless), Olavs draumar (Olav’s Dreams), and Kveldsvævd (Weariness) at an award ceremony in Reykjavik.
At the moment, I am reading Balladen om Grønland (The Greenland Dilemma) by Martin Breum, which takes a hard look at the conflicts between Denmark and Greenland. A book like this provides an opportunity to become wiser about our different points of view and ways of life. This is a really good starting point if we are to understand our common history and lay the groundwork for future cooperation between Denmark and Greenland.

Bertel Geismar Haarder, Minister for Culture of Denmark