Ari Behn
Norwegian author (1972-2019) · Denmark · On the map · Writers · Died at 47
A Norwegian writer whose 1999 short story collection earned quiet critical praise, then whose engagement to a princess turned him into a tabloid fixture - and whose later decades played out as a public struggle between artistic ambition and the suspicion he'd become famous for the wrong reasons.
Ari Behn is read about 449 times a day, in 31 languages.
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Born Mikael Bjørshol on 30 September 1972, he changed his name to Ari Behn in 1996, three years before publishing "Trist som faen" ("Sad as hell"), a short story collection that drew favorable reviews and remains his best-known work. His 2002 marriage to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway - during which he held no title and remained a private citizen - spiked interest in the book, which eventually sold nearly 100,000 copies. He went on to publish four novels, two more story collections, a play, and a wedding book, though the later work drew cooler reception; he also designed a china set called "Peacock" and acknowledged that many Norwegians saw him as a "fool" and an amateur. From 2013 until his death he painted in a neo-expressionist style influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat, producing what critics called "highly narrative" work that showed internationally in 2017-18. He and Märtha Louise divorced in 2017; Behn died on 25 December 2019.
