POETRY: Kosmos' baby by Gunnar Wærness, and Collection by Erling Kittelsen are two books that have a similarity in how they extend away from the personal (author) self and borrow voices from the environment. The latter makes fun of the cultural tourist and New Age consumer who attends evening classes in Sufism one month and shamanic drumming the next.

INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION: Contrary to Norwegian law, Norway is heavily involved in preparations for war in space, and Norwegian satellites and radar systems are used in the US space war. Bård Wormdal's third book reveals the extensive e-service cooperation between the USA and Norway outside NATO cooperation, authorized in secret agreements, outside the Storting's control. The revelations are startling. The spy war is a factual thriller about Norwegian security policy.

PHOTO ART: The lonely person is a prerequisite for the expressive world artist who came to the fore with Edvard Munch in the 1890s. A new biography is now available: According to de Figueiredo, the frivolous reality the bohemians in Kristiania clamored for in the 1880s came to fruition in 1890s Berlin, where Munch was part of a milieu that had conversations about "naturalism and socialism, decadence and Darwinism and psychology – as well as an ever-so-small dose of Satanism”.

MONOGRAPH: Reich had considerable influence on Norwegian intellectuals. But he was thrown out of both the Communist Party and the International Psychoanalytical Association – and died in an American prison aged just 60.

AESTHETICS: In Kiøsterud's eco-philosophical text, 'beauty' becomes a riddle as much as a solution, a question as much as an answer. Is it possible to find beauty on nature's own terms – a beauty you cannot own?

The IS brides: Both victims of and renegade supporters of the terrorist organization IS claim that this "state" will rise again, and journalists and experts support the claim. But how many victims' stories are needed before IS loses its appeal to individuals? What about Aisha Shezadi Kausar?

Big tech: The planet of apps is probably one of the richest things you can now read about how we humans "sew together" with communication technology. But what about surveillance?

TRUMP: In the latest issue of Agora with populism as its theme, Donald Trump comes out in two variants: in a very personal version (where he owes just about everything he owns) and as a patrimonial leader in a postmodern USA

PHILOSOPHY: Shortly after Agora's magnificent publication on populism, the magazine follows up with an even thicker publication. This time it is about Michel Foucault and his groundbreaking series of lectures on neoliberalism.

FICTION: In Kiøsterud's quiet recluse novel, life is weighed against the pain in a quest for reconciliation. Nature remains silent and ambiguous, even when the protagonist tries to step aside with his demands for meaning.

ISLAM: In a time when fear of Islam is spreading, Seyran Ates writes that Islam needs a sexual revolution to gain respect from the world community.

COMPROMISE: The book by artist Leonora Carrington is a journey into the jungle of surrealism, a successful escape from the conventional and a fantasy infiltration of the established.

ECOLOGY: In autobiographical form, Kiøsterud continues his rethinking of modernity in the era of the eco-crisis. He points to a normalized brutality that most tacitly accepts.

FEELINGS: A horror image of a stifling genius. Is Knausgård now more dangerous than Kierkegaard as a producer of ideology?

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY: Out of the Shadows tells of the harsh equality struggle for immigrant mothers who followed their husbands to Norway in the hope of a better life, but who were met with xenophobia, racism and prejudice.

Genuine and personal poetry collection from Eldrid Lunden.