In the late 1950s Agnar Mykle was the most controversial author in Norway. In 1956 he published Sangen om den røde rubin (translated as The Song of the Red Ruby, 1961), which garnered headlines and was boycotted by several libraries. There were two main reasons for the controversy: on the south coast the novel was regarded as pornographic, and in Bergen, where the novel is set, the book was thought to be a roman à clef that spread smear stories about the citizens, exposing several women's sexual experiences. A lawsuit brought against Mykle in 1957 involved the charge of pornography, but part of the motivation was anger from those who felt they or their loved ones were slanderously represented in the novel. Some people also believed that the trial was an act of revenge by Det norske Arbeiderparti (The Norwegian Labor Party). Mykle, once thought to be the party's...