Bauer's father was eventually deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died three months before the end of the war.
[3] Bauer started his literary career translating short stories from Danish to Norwegian for Allers.
He quickly advanced to becoming sports reporter for Det Nye, and later a traveling journalist for Vi Menn.
As an adult, he learned that his father had in fact died of methanol poisoning, having gotten hold of what he thought was alcohol.
[8] The novel depicts a young man returning to Oslo after spending some time at sea.
Bauer felt that the Norwegian press was giving a one-sided picture of The Troubles, something he wanted to correct.
[10] Bauer himself arrived in Belfast in 1972, shortly after the Bloody Sunday, as a journalist for Vi Menn.
The antagonism is based on economic differences ... this is not a religious war", Bauer said in an interview shortly after the release of Rosapenna.
[10] Bauer's 1985 novel Metoden introduced the protagonist Bo Brandt, the son of a wealthy, alcoholized, ship-owner.
[8] Bauer's last novels would revolve around Tom, who starts out as a ten-year-old in Hestehodetåken (1992), and returns as a teenager in Svartefot (1995), and a twenty-year-old in Magenta (1997).
[13] In the fourth novel in the series, Forløperen (1999), Tom returns to Norway after spending forty years traveling abroad.
Bauer had been involved in a dramatic television production, Jakttid, but as his condition worsened, he prioritized finishing his last novel, Forløperen.