Adler-Olsen Yussi

Jussi Adler-Olsen is a Danish writer, publisher, editor, and translator.

Carl Valdemar Jussi Henry Adler-Olsen, as the writer’s full name sounds, was born on August 2, 1950, in Copenhagen into the family of a chief psychiatrist. There is not much detailed information about his childhood. It is known that he was a Boy Scout and played guitar in pop groups during his school years.

Jussi Adler-Olsen has a rich professional biography and a wide range of interests, following in the footsteps of his father, who studied throughout his life for pleasure and instilled this habit in his son as well. Jussi studied political science and medicine, received an education in film studies and sociology, and tried himself in many professions.

At various times he was involved in the international sale of publishing rights, worked in an antique comic book store, and while studying film directing Jussi Adler-Olsen wrote scripts for Walter Lantz and Disney in Denmark and the Netherlands. For several years he worked as an editor and proofreader for magazines and comics, and later as a publisher. He also made a name for himself as a composer, writing the soundtrack for the animated film Valhalla, based on the comic series of the same name. He also worked in television.

Jussi Adler-Olsen married while still a student, and he and his wife often moved. “We lived in 16 different houses, and I rebuilt each one, so for almost 35 years we lived in renovation dust,” Adler-Olsen jokes. The couple has been together for more than 50 years.

When Jussi Olsen was 45, he had already been working for several years as a top manager in a large publishing holding company, but one day he realized that such stressful work was literally driving his colleagues to an early grave. He did not want to end up so badly, so he went to his wife and shared the idea of writing his own book and his desire to give everything up and embark on a new adventure with no guarantee of success. She supported him.

He wrote his first novel (unpublished) in 1980–1982. His writing career began with The Alphabet House, a thriller about two pilots who fake madness and end up in a psychiatric hospital, hoping to stay there until the end