The Swedish bestseller lists
Jo Nesbø’s The Kingdom remains No. 1 on the official weekly bestseller list for paperbacks in Sweden. Meanwhile, on the children’s books list, David Sundin makes his first appearance with the just published The Book That Really Did Not Want To Be Read, which lands the No. 3 spot. This title is of course the sequel to the already internationally beloved The Book That Did Not Want To Be Read.
‘A Happier Year’ published in Sweden
In 1879, renowned philosopher Pontus Wikner pens the text he will call “Psychological Self-Confessions.” The manuscript is locked in a tin box and sent to Uppsala’s University Library, where it will, per Wikner’s instructions, be left unopened for a minimum of fifty years. The unassuming box’s contents are so controversial and scandalous that rumors of it alone cause a panic among Wikner’s circle of friends, who try to prevent it from ever being opened. Yet Wikner’s wish is to one day have the manuscript published. In a future where everything has changed. In a happier year.
In 1970, almost a hundred years after Pontus Wikner’s melancholy confessions, a group of youths in Örebro form the Gay Power Club. The eccentric Ronny walks the town’s streets in full drag under the midday sun. The lovers Vanja and Kerstin create national headlines as “the girls who want to get married.” And together they perform Sweden’s first ever march for the freedom of homosexuals.
A Happier Year is Jonas Gardell’s gripping story of students Pontus and Herman and their impossible love story of the late 19th century. It is the fantastical tale of a few brave young people from a small-town in the middle of Sweden during the second half of the 20th century, youths who’ve decided that they too have a right to be happy. It’s a dizzying novel of love in a time when love had no language, and the true story of how the fight for freedom began.
Anders August to adapt Karen Blixen’s ‘Ehrengard’
Danish screenwriter Anders August is set to adapt Karen Blixen’s novel Ehrengard for Netflix. The Danish Oscar winner Bille August has been recruited to direct the project. The project has been developed over the last decade by Jacob Jørgensen and JJ Film, with SF’s Marcella Dichmann producing. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is designing the sets.
Ehrengard is set in the fairytale kingdom of Babenhausen, where a young, self-appointed expert on love, Cazotte, is hired by the scheming Grand Duchess to help her secure an heir. While searching for a suitable future Princess, Cazotte teaches the timid and introverted Crown Prince the art of seduction and lovemaking. But their plan soon backfires, when an heir is conceived out of wedlock and the royal family has to seek refuge in the castle of Rosenbad. Here, as rivals within the royal family close in on their scheme, Cazotte himself falls in love with Ehrengard, the maid of honour, and gradually learns that in fact, he’s no expert on love at all.
Lina Brounéus, director co-production and acquisition EMEA at Netflix, said: “With such a strong creative team in Bille August and Anders August, our close partners SF Studios producing combined with the extraordinary decoupages from Queen Margrethe II, I feel confident that this timeless tale will be just as epic, ingenious and witty as Karen Blixen’s masterpiece from 1962.”
Kepler shortlisted for BookBeat’s ‘Crime Author of the Year’
Lars Kepler is nominated for Bookbeat’s Crime Author of the Year 2021, an award that is completely data-driven and is based on how popular, listened to and liked the three latest novels from current Swedish crime authors have been during the past year.
The winner will be announced on September 25th at this year’s CrimeTime Festival in Gothenburg.
Photo: Linnéa Jonasson Bernholm
‘Capable People’ shortlisted for the Crimetime Award
Klas Ekman’s novel Capable People has been shortlisted for the 2021 Crimetime Award in the category ‘Crime Debut of the Year.’ The jury had the following motivation:
“Just like Max von Sydow played a game of chess with death in Bergman’s cult movie, the main characters in this debut play a game of dominoes with fate. A highly human slip turns into the catalyst for a series of events, and soon they’re trapped in a web of lies and schemes where only the adept can prevail. /…/ Social realism combines with wit in a thriller format we barely thought was possible, but is executed with elegance.”
The Crimetime Award was founded in 2015 by the crime festival Crimetime in Sweden. The winner will be revealed on 21 September. Click the “Read me” button below to vote before 19 September.
‘Meltdown’ published in Sweden
A wintery spring has just given way to early summer. Sam Berger, Molly Blom and Deer, their contact at the police office, who is just learning how to walk again after the attack that brutally changed her life, sense an ambiguous connection between the bodies that are being found one by one in the thawing archipelago. Someone is going to murder again. Could Sam, Molly and Deer intervene, or is the truth far worse than what they could ever imagine?
Meltdown is the stand-alone fifth installment in the lauded Berger & Blom series. It’s a raging thriller coming together in a ghastly crescendo masterfully orchestrated as only Arne Dahl knows how.
‘SAS: Rise of the Black Swan’ premiere on Netflix
SAS: Rise of the Black Swan, the action film directed by Magnus Martens based on Andy McNab’s novel Red Notice, premiered on Netflix on this Friday and is the second most watched movie in the US this weekend.
The film stars Sam Heughan (Outlander), Ruby Rose (Batwoman), Andy Serkis (Planet of the Apes), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) and Hannah John-Kamen (Ready Player One) and follows a band of criminals as they hijack the Eurostar train with 400 hostages on board, deep beneath the English Channel where they plan to detonate an explosion, ushering in an economic war on the government. Unbeknownst to the criminals, injured Special Air Service off-duty officer Tom Buckingham is on board the train as well, and he will stop at nothing to thwart the terrorist attack.
Liza Marklund and Jo Nesbø No. 1 in Sweden
Liza Marklund’s just published The Polar Circle goes straight to No. 1 on the official list for hardcovers in Sweden. The paperback list’s No. 1 spot meanwhile goes to Jo Nesbø and The Kingdom, just out in paperback.
Bobbie Peers shortlisted for Ark’s Children’s Book Award 2021
Ahead of its publication, Marvin Mellow and Peas on Earth has garnered Bobbie Peers his second nomination for Ark’s Children’s Book Award 2021. Peers previously won the sought-after award in 2015 for William Wenton and the Luridium Thief. The annual literary prize is bestowed upon the children’s book of the year and the ultimate winner is selected by over 10,000 children in grades 5-7. The award ceremony will be held in Oslo in November.
‘Marvin Mellow & Peas on Earth’ published in Norway
Marvin Mellow is a strikingly ordinary boy. He gets pushed around by nasty bullies at school and dreams of becoming a YouTube star. Then one day his life takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a peculiar metal egg in his garden and befriends the alien Peas. From then on, nothing is ordinary!
A wild and laugh-out-loud funny story for middle grade readers, featuring Marvin Mellow, Fred, Principal Tor, the bullies Irmeline and Fluffy, action heroes, stunt men, dating, aliens, fame, bagpipe music and friendship. Ahead of its release Marvin Mellow and Peas on Earth has landed Bobbie Peers his second nomination for the sought-after Ark’s Children’s Book Award for children’s book of the year.