Hans Olav Thyvold

Hans Olav Thyvold is a Norwegian journalist, broadcaster, and nonfiction author whose first novel gives its narrative voice to an irritable but devoted dog. Good Dogs Don’t Make it to the South Pole follows Tassen after Major Thorkildsen dies, leaving the dog and the Major's widow to build an unexpected companionship. Their library research into Roald Amundsen's polar expedition, especially the sled dogs that enabled it, becomes a source of resolve when Mrs. Thorkildsen's relatives make plans for her future. Aschehoug published the Norwegian original, Snille hunder kommer ikke til Sydpolen, in 2017. Marie Otsby translated the novel into English; HarperVia brought it to American readers in August 2020, while Allen & Unwin published in Australia. Thyvold combines canine observation, polar history, grief, aging, and dark comedy. His previous nonfiction about Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen gives the expedition material an informed place within a story fundamentally concerned with loyalty, autonomy, and companionship.