Stig Dalager

Stig Dalager is a Danish author. Dalager resides in Copenhagen and made his debut as a writer in 1980. Since then, he has written numerous works that span various literary genres. Several of Dalager’s plays and novels have been translated into multiple languages, including the documentary novel “Two Days in July” about the July Uprising of 1944 in Germany, “Journey in Blue” about H.C. Andersen, and “Shadowland,” which is set to be adapted into an English-language film. Dalager’s novels and plays have been released and/or performed in 34 countries.

In the 1990s, Dalager achieved international theatrical success with the Sarajevo monologue “I Count the Hours,” which was followed by the play “The Dream,” premiering in New York in 1999 and later staged in Odense, Copenhagen, Moscow, and Lodz.

In 2003, Dalager produced the documentary “Darkness and Reconciliation” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The novels “Forgetfulness and Memory,” “David’s Book,” the prose trilogy “Random Connections,” the novel about H.C. Andersen “Journey in Blue” (nominated for the international IMPAC Award in 2008), “Shadowland” (regarding the 9/11 attack in New York), and “The Blue Light” (about Marie Curie) are among Stig Dalager’s most read and well-known prose works. The five-part novel “The Bridges to the World,” of which “The Labyrinth” is the 2nd and “Shadowland” the 3rd standalone volume, was described as “world literature” (using Goethe’s definition) by the leading Swedish newspaper, “Dagens Nyheter,” in 2011.

In the fall of 2005, “The Labyrinth” (set in Vienna 1993-94) was released, which is the second volume in the novel trilogy “Forgetfulness and Memory.” The third volume, “Shadowland,” released on September 11, 2007, focuses on the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. The fourth volume, “The Light Comes Slowly,” was released in 2009 and is set in Baghdad and New York in 2004 and London in 2005, addressing the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks on London’s underground stations. The fifth and final volume, “The Long Day,” was released in March 2011 and takes place in Denmark during the Muhammad crisis of 2006. “The Blue Light,” a novel about Marie Curie, was released in August 2012, and “The Eternity of the Moment,” a novel about Søren Kierkegaard, was released in May 2013. Dalager’s novels and plays have been released/produced in a total of 30 countries, including upcoming releases in Arab countries and Iran. In 2015, “Endless Journey” was released, focusing on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg’s efforts to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in Budapest during World War II and his tragic fate in the Soviet Gulag system. In 2017, the novel “Woman in a Century” was released, focusing on Elisabeth of Bohemia, one of Europe’s first female philosophers, especially her relationship with the French philosopher René Descartes, and the story “The Rabbi’s Last Days,” with 30 drawings by Martin Bigum, a reinterpretation of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Also, in March 2017, the world premiere of the play “Journey in Light and Shadow” took place in New York. In 2020, Dalager’s new novel “Chaos and the World” will be released, depicting the story set in the U.S. during Trump’s first hundred days as president and focusing on the theme of artificial intelligence. “Chaos and the World” is the 7th standalone volume in Dalager’s novel cycle “The Bridges to the World.”

Stig Dalager’s plays are preserved in the Dramatic Library at The Royal Library. In 2005, Dalager received the Lifetime Artistic Achievement award from the Danish Arts Foundation.