The Magic Continues

It’s been just over a year since Viking featured the photography of Per Tore Breiehagen in the December 2012 cover story “Norway’s Nisse,” featuring magical winter landscapes and Breiehagen’s nisse-like daughter Anja in red felted hat and reindeer slippers. In the year since, Breiehagen and his wife and writer/collaborator Lori Evert paired the photos with a tale of a little girl’s quest to help Santa, written by Evert, then went in search of a
publisher—without an agent.

Turns out they didn’t need one. The charming photos and whimsical text of A Christmas Wish spoke for themselves. Random House picked up the title and printed 70,000 copies in their first printing. A Christmas Wish made #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and by Christmastime the first printing was sold out.
A wish come true, and maybe a little nisse magic.

Read former Viking editor Amy Boxrud’s past blog posts on Breiehagen and the December 2012 cover feature.

Ann Pedersen is editor of Viking magazine. She lives with her family in St. Paul, Minn.