While his crime novels have sold nine million copies worldwide, he's just becoming widely known in the United States, but his new novel will likely change that.
"The Snowman" hit bookstores in the United States last week and is winning raves from American critics. It's Nesbø's seventh novel featuring police detective and recovering alcoholic, Harry Hole (pronounced WHO-leh).
It's a terrifying thriller, about the hunt for a serial killer, who leaves a snowman as his calling card.
The book is already a bestseller in Britain, won Norway's novel of the year in 2008, and appears headed for the big screen. "The Snowman" has been optioned by Working Title films, ironically, the same production company behind the movie version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
Nesbø was at the Cannes Film Festival last week to promote "Headhunters" a movie based on another of his novels. He's now touring a handful of U.S. cities to promote "The Snowman."
CNN caught up with the author this week. The following is an edited transcript.
CNN: For new readers, tell us a little about your main character Harry Hole.
Nesbø: It is not easy to summarize the protagonist of the series in a few words, but here are some features of Harry's personality that are important to me when I write about him: He's the type of guy who is driven by his good side as well as his darker side.
At times he believes in his role as law enforcer, at other times he doesn't. And occasionally he is so gripped by his emotions that they overwhelm his basic belief in the principles of a state governed by law.
He hunts down criminals with such an intense hatred and finds revenge so hard to resist that at times he could be mistaken for the antagonists he is fighting. But at the same time he can feel empathy for, perhaps even a kinship with, the lawbreaker.
Harry Hole is a hero with pronounced weaknesses. All good heroes have an Achilles heel, and in Harry's case, it is alcohol.
