Cora Sandel, the pseudonym of Sara Fabricius, is one of Norway’s most significant 20th century authors. She was born in Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1880 and moved with her family to Tromso, Northern Norway, in 1893. As a young woman, she aspired to become a painter and traveled to Paris in 1906 to pursue her artistic education. She lived in Paris, Brittany, and Florence until 1921, when she moved to Stockholm with her husband, Swedish sculptor Anders Jönsson, and their son Erik (born 1917). Before leaving France, she abandoned painting and turned to writing.
Marital difficulties led her to spend six months alone in Tromso I 1922. She later settled permanently in Sweden, divorcing Anders in 1927. Sara Fabricius adopted the pseudonym Cora Sandel in 1922, publishing her first short story under this name. Her literary breakthrough came in 1926 with the novel Alberte og Jakob, the first in a trilogy about Alberte Selmer – books widely regarded as semi-autobiographical. She also published two additional novels and numerous short stories.
Sandel’s work remains highly relevant today, as she explores themes such as alienation, interpersonal relationships, bodily autonomy, artistic freedom, war, and animal welfare. Most of her fiction is set in a small Northern Norwegian town with strong parallels to Tromso, as well as in Paris and Brittany. Her works have been translated into 16 languages. She passed away in Sweden in 1974 at the age of 93.
