Erlend Loe (24 May 1969, Trondheim) is a Norwegian novelist,[1] screenwriter and film critic.

He has gained popularity in Scandinavia with his humorous and sometimes naïve novels, although his stories have become darker in tone, moving towards a more satirical criticism of modern Norwegian society.

[2] Erlend Loe worked at a psychiatric clinic, as a substitute teacher and as a freelance journalist for Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen.

His first book Tatt av kvinnen (Gone with the Woman) was published in 1993, and a year later published a children's book, Fisken (The Fish), about a forklift operator named Kurt.

Loe has a distinctive style of writing which is often likened to naïve art.