Author and literature professor Tore Rem was suddenly struck by serious illness. He was just 47 when he collapsed on a football pitch, and he would never be healthy again. It turned out that he suffers from a rare disease that attacks the heart, forcing him to undergo demanding treatment and endure long periods of illness. In his book Previously Healthy Man, he offers a powerful and honest insight into life with illness: a body that fails, medication and side effects, and how illness can also shape family life, relationships and a career.
Alexander Kielland also became ill in the middle of his life. Heart disease and depression had a profound impact on him, as he described in many of his letters. He believed that physical ailments and depression were the reason he could no longer write and had to give up his career as an author. Ultimately, it was his heart that failed when he died at Bergen Hospital at the age of just 57.
Tore Rem is known for his biographies of King Olav, Jens Bjørneboe and Knut Hamsun, but he has also written about Kielland’s literary work. He meets Stine Honoré, head of the Kielland Centre, for a conversation about being ill and living with a sick body. The conversation is hosted by Christian Gilsvik from the podcast series Stories That Changed Norway.
