DARLAH
Encyclopedia
DARLAH is a sci-fi / horror
novel
by the Norwegian
author
Johan Harstad
, published in 2008. The plot starts in 2012, when NASA
decides to launch another mission to the moon
and as a mean of gaining public interest (and funding) and announces a lottery in which three teenagers will be allowed to go on the mission along with the astronauts. The real purpose for the expedition is to examine a mystical phenomenon, recently rediscovered; it apparently was the real reason that NASA stopped sending people to the moon in the seventies. DARLAH is the name of the lunar base they are staying in, a until recently secret installation dating back to 1976. Nasa holds a contest for kids between 13 and 18. The winners are a girl from Norway who plays in a band, a boy from France who just lost his girlfriend, and a girl from Japan who is bullied at school.
At the moon, they all discovers that something terrible will happen. Something that can mean the end of humanity.
The novel is a tribute to and draws heavily from several science-fiction and horror novels and films from the 1970s and the 1980as, such as Alien
, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Solaris
and 2001: A Space Odyssey. As in his 2007 novel, Hässelby, DARLAH also draws inspiration from David Lynch
's tv-series Twin Peaks
.
Harstad won the Norwegian Brage Award for DARLAH. The novel is currently being translated to English
, French
, Dutch
, Faroese
, German
, Korean
and Swedish
.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Johan Harstad
Johan Harstad
Johan Harstad is an Norwegian short story writer, novelist and playwright.Harstad was born in Stavanger. He made his literary debut in 2001, with a collection of short prose entitled Herfra blir du bare eldre...
, published in 2008. The plot starts in 2012, when NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
decides to launch another mission to the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and as a mean of gaining public interest (and funding) and announces a lottery in which three teenagers will be allowed to go on the mission along with the astronauts. The real purpose for the expedition is to examine a mystical phenomenon, recently rediscovered; it apparently was the real reason that NASA stopped sending people to the moon in the seventies. DARLAH is the name of the lunar base they are staying in, a until recently secret installation dating back to 1976. Nasa holds a contest for kids between 13 and 18. The winners are a girl from Norway who plays in a band, a boy from France who just lost his girlfriend, and a girl from Japan who is bullied at school.
At the moon, they all discovers that something terrible will happen. Something that can mean the end of humanity.
The novel is a tribute to and draws heavily from several science-fiction and horror novels and films from the 1970s and the 1980as, such as Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
and 2001: A Space Odyssey. As in his 2007 novel, Hässelby, DARLAH also draws inspiration from David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's tv-series Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
.
Harstad won the Norwegian Brage Award for DARLAH. The novel is currently being translated to English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
.