Author Erika Fatland, 43, says Norway and its allies must strengthen their defenses and give Ukraine far more assistance than they have so far, according to Dagbladet. She made the remarks in an interview published on October 11, 2026, speaking at a café table in Frogner Park in Oslo.
Fatland pointed to a neighboring country that is expanding its military budget, describing the situation as one that demands serious attention. "We have a neighbor that is rearming, that will spend even more on its military budget next year than it did this year," she told Dagbladet. "They have set up a war economy, and they conduct war propaganda in primary school. It would be extremely naive not to take that threat seriously."
The author spent much of the past year in Ukraine gathering material for her book, "Ukraina. En vinterreise" (Ukraine: A Winter Journey). According to Dagbladet, she was almost more in Ukraine than at home in Norway during that period, and she celebrated both Christmas and New Year's in the country.
Why it matters
Fatland's comments arrive at a moment when European governments are debating how much of their budgets to devote to defense and how long they can sustain military and financial aid to Ukraine. Her argument, as reported by Dagbladet, is that the threat posed by a rearming neighbor is structural rather than temporary, and that treating it as anything less than urgent carries real risk.
The book has drawn attention from multiple Norwegian outlets. Bergens Tidende described it as "a journey through the history of evil," while NRK called it "quiet and shaking." Klassekampen framed its review around a direct question: is this book important enough? VG, for its part, said Fatland is at her best in the new work.
The range of coverage suggests the book has landed as more than a travelogue. It has become part of a broader public conversation in Norway about war, memory, and what citizens owe to a country under attack.
A winter spent reporting from Ukraine
Fatland's method, as Dagbladet describes it, was immersion rather than distance. She did not observe the war from afar; she lived inside the winter it produced. Spending holidays in Ukraine meant experiencing the conflict during a season that is often hardest on civilians, when cold, darkness, and disrupted infrastructure compound the effects of fighting.
That choice shapes the material she gathered. A winter journey is not a survey of battle lines or a tally of weapons systems. It is a record of how people endure, and of what daily life looks like when a country is defending itself.
The decision to remain through Christmas and New Year's is notable in itself. Those are periods when foreign correspondents often rotate out and when many Ukrainians are separated from family. By staying, Fatland positioned herself to document the war at a time when attention elsewhere tends to drift.
Reviews place the book in a wider conversation
Norwegian critics have responded with language that treats the book as significant rather than merely well-crafted. The descriptions from Bergens Tidende, NRK, Klassekampen, and VG all point in the same direction: this is a work that asks readers to confront something uncomfortable.
Klassekampen's question — whether the book is important enough — is itself a signal. It suggests reviewers are weighing the book not only on literary grounds but on whether it earns its place in a crowded field of war writing. That the question was posed at all indicates the stakes the reviewer attached to it.
Fatland's public remarks align with the tone of that reception. She is not presenting the book as a neutral account. She is using the platform it gives her to argue for a specific position: that rearmament and expanded support for Ukraine are necessary responses to a threat she believes is being underestimated.
Her phrasing in the Dagbladet interview was blunt. Calling inaction "extremely naive" leaves little room for ambiguity about where she stands. The reference to military spending increases and to what she describes as a war economy and propaganda in schools frames the issue as one of trajectory — not a single event, but a direction of travel.
What to watch
The book's reception in Norway will indicate whether Fatland's argument resonates beyond the review pages, and whether her call for greater support for Ukraine gains traction in a public debate that shows no sign of settling.
