The monthly Icelandic bestseller list for August sees Liza Marklund’s Black Pearl Farm land the No. 3 spot. The No. 4 position is claimed by Lina Bengtsdotter’s Annabelle.

Maja Säfström’s The Illustrated Compendium of Amazing Animal Facts has reached the No. 2 spot on the official Czech bestseller list for week 38 in the children’s and YA books category.

The journalistic thriller Quick, which is based on Hannes Råstam’s book Thomas Quick: The Making of a Serial Killer, premiered last week and has received great reviews in the Swedish press.

“An intense cinematic experience without a single dull moment.”
–Aftonbladet

“So thrilling it will undoubtedly have you twisting and turning in your seat.”
–Filmeye

“Visually stunning.”
–Göteborgs-Posten

“A thrilling and well-performed crime drama. /…/ Quick stands out from the crowd.”
–Filmtopp.se

“Dark, dazzling, top-level acting.”
–SVT Kulturnyheter

In Sofi Oksanen’s The Dog Park, modern-day Helsinki intertwines with the past of Ukraine’s post-Soviet independence. The corruption of the East meets and feeds the greed of the West, and at this intersection stand two women. Their story of loyalty, love and broken trust play out against a backdrop of power struggles – between influential families, and between the sexes as the lifegiving ability of the female body becomes a lucrative commodity.

Oksanen moves between psychological thriller and the acutely human as she weaves a captivating narrative about a woman unable to escape the memory of her lost child, the powers that still hunt her, and the lies that saved her life. Sharply observant and a master of portraits, this time Oksanen turns her eye to the fertility business, illustrating the micro-realities of the international baby-making factories.

Selma Falck wakes to a nightmare. She’s naked and trapped in a burning cabin on a snow-covered mountain. She has no idea where she is or how she got there. Hurt and bleeding, she barely makes it out in time. Wearing nothing more than a pair of oversized rubber boots, she watches the cabin burn to the ground. There are no signs of human habitation nearby, the temperature is rapidly dropping, and a blizzard is approaching. She must survive.

As Selma fights the cold, the hunger and her own wounds, it comes back to her in bits and pieces. She tries to put it all together, and eventually it forms a frightening picture of the past six months. Selma realizes that she not only has to survive, but make it back to civilization, quickly. Murder has been committed, and a great injustice must be stopped. The future of the nation itself is at stake.

A Necessary Death is the second installment in Anne Holt’s Selma Falck series.

The weekly bestseller lists for Sweden see Jørn Lier Horst’s The Cabin climb the e-book list, coming in at No. 3. Frida Ramstedt meanwhile shoots to the top five on the nonfiction list with Make Yourself at Home: The Ultimate Guide to Interior Decorating, landing at No. 5.

A difficult divorce has left Esther adrift and the weekends without her son are painfully lonely. Every other Saturday she goes to an old oak tree in a meadow by the water. One day, Ruth is there waiting for her – an older lady with a wonderful ability to focus on everything that’s beautiful in life. As Ruth recounts her youth, Esther can’t help but be fascinated by her stories. An unexpected and steadfast friendship blossoms between the two women. But everything isn’t as it seems. What secrets are Ruth hiding? The search for answers takes Esther all the way to Italy and Lake Como, where she begins to see that there is far more to Ruth than she ever let on.

Sofia Lundberg’s Where the Oak Still Stands is a gripping novel about longing, guilt, undying friendship, and finding oneself again after a destructive relationship.