His biography of Galileo won the Brage Award for best Norwegian non-fiction book in 2001

The Norwegian edition has sold nearly 6000 copies

Biographies as a genre are very popular

The author was born in 1949. He studied language and literature at Oslo University and worked for some years as a teacher at various levels before becoming an independent writer of novels and non-fiction. Among his books is a novel about the Italian painter Caravaggio, translated into English under the title 'Doubting Thomas' [in German as 'Caravaggio's Flucht']. His biography of Galileo won the Brage Award for best Norwegian non-fiction book in 2001. Næss' most recent work is a biography of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.