Anne Karin Hestnes was born 19 January 1938, in
Halsa Municipality to farm owner Johan Hestnes (1897–1980) and Jenny Roaldset (1900–1950), and grew up in
Valsøyfjord Municipality in
Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. She was educated as a teacher from 1959 to 1963, and worked in the profession until 1978, before she dedicated her full-time to writing. She debuted as an author in 1976 with the novel
Folket på Innhaug, which is the first of four novels in a popular series about the people who lived at Innhaug. The other three titles are
Magret (1977),
Nytt rotfeste (1979) and
Veiene møtes (1980). At the time of her death, she was working on her fourteenth novel, yet untitled. It is not known how far she had come, and whether or not the book will be published.
Personal life, health and death Elstad was married twice, first to her teacher colleague Bjørn Elstad, from whom she took her last name, from 1961 to their divorce in 1978. She was remarried to the publisher's reader Birger Eide in 1981, they divorced ten years later. In 1986, Elstad suffered her first, albeit minor, stroke. She then suffered yet another stroke in 1992, which rendered her partially paralyzed. She subsequently had to relearn how to walk, talk and write, keeping her away from making new books for almost eight years. ==Bibliography==