Fredrik Backman winner of the Piraten Award
Fredrik Backman is the recipient of the 2019 Piraten Award, a prestigious Swedish culture and arts award handed out by the Fritiof Nilsson Piraten Society. Backman is the youngest author to have received the prize. The jury motivates their choice thusly:
“Since his triumphant debut, a work whose echoes still reverberate worldwide, this year’s winner has become one of our most beloved storytellers. He portrays the ordinary person and all of her hardships with warmth and empathy. He mixes humor with gravity in true Piraten spirit, and is always on the side of the weak in his depictions of our time.”
The Fritiof Nilsson Piraten Society was founded in honor of author Fritiof Nilsson Piraten and is Sweden’s largest literary society. Previous winners of the award include Peter Englund, Kristina Lugn, Leif GW Persson and Gösta Ekman. The award will be handed out in July in Kivik in southern Sweden.
Lars Kepler winner of Pocisk’s Best Translated Crime Novel of 2018
Lars Kepler is the winner of the Polish crime-fiction magazine Pocisk’s award for Best Translated Crime Novel of 2018 for their sixth installment in the Joona Linna series, The Rabbit Hunter. The award was handed over to the authors during a ceremony at the Warsaw Crime Festival on May 18th.
‘Things My Son Needs to Know About the World’ on Canadian bestseller list
Fredrik Backman’s Things My Son Needs to Know About the World is on the Canadian bestseller list for original non-fiction for the second week in a row, climbing to No. 5 this week.
Fredrik Backman, Ulf Lundell and Roslund & Hellström on the Swedish bestseller lists
Week 19’s official Swedish bestseller lists see Fredrik Backman and Ulf Lundell appear at No. 3 and No. 4 on the hardcover list, Backman taking the former spot with Anxious People, and Lundell the latter with Weekdays 2. Both titles also feature on the ebook list, where Weekdays 2 is No. 3 and Anxious People is No. 5. Roslund & Hellström meanwhile come in at No. 5 on the paperback list with Three Hours.
Hedvig Montgomery and Horst & Enger No. 1 in Norway
Hedvig Montgomery and Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger each snag a No. 1 spot on the official Norwegian bestseller lists for week 19 (May 6-12). Hedvig Montgomery is No. 1 on the nonfiction list with The Kindergarten Age, and Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger’s Death Deserved is No. 1 on the paperback list.
‘The Wolf and the Watchman’ sold to 35 territories
Niklas Natt och Dag’s international bestseller The Wolf and the Watchman has now been sold to 35 territories! A compelling, vivid, and utterly fascinating portrait of Stockholm at the end of the 18th Century, The Wolf and the Watchman is Natt och Dag’s award-winning debut work.
Jo Nesbø and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir on Sunday Times’ list of 100 best thrillers since 1945
The Sunday Times has presented a carefully curated list of the very best crime and spy novels to be published since 1945, and among the illustrious authors and titles featured are Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir’s The Silence of the Sea. Nesbø and Sigurdardóttir are joined on the list by iconic names like Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming and Henning Mankell.
Lars Kepler nominated for Pocisk’s Best Translated Crime Novel of 2018
Lars Kepler’s The Rabbit Hunter has been nominated for the Polish crime-fiction magazine Pocisk’s award for Best Translated Crime Novel of 2018. Pocisk is the biggest magazine for crime readers in Poland, and will announce their winner during the Warsaw Crime Festival on May 18th.
Jørn Lier Horst presented with the 2019 Petrona Award
Jørn Lier Horst is the winner of the 2019 Petrona Award for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’ for The Katharina Code. This marks the second time that Horst received the prestigious award – he first did so in 2016 with The Caveman.
The jury motivates their choice of the novel and Horst with the following official comment:
“From the code’s intriguing introduction in the novel’s opening pages to the duel of wits at its end, Jørn Lier Horst has crafted an outstanding and thrilling police procedural. The judges were particularly impressed with how the author takes established tropes – the ‘cold case’, the longstanding suspect, the dogged nature of policework – and combines them in ways that are innovative and fresh. The Katharina Code is the seventh novel in Horst’s ‘William Wisting’ series to be superbly translated by Anne Bruce from Norwegian into English, and a highly worthy winner of the 2019 Petrona Award.”
Niklas Natt och Dag longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
Niklas Natt och Dag’s The Wolf and the Watchman has been longlisted for the prestigious 2019 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
Named after the iconic author Ian Fleming, the award is given to a title that fits the broadest definition of the thriller novel – it can be set in any period and include, but not be limited to, spy fiction and/or action/adventure stories. All in the spirit of Fleming, who said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller – that “one simply has to turn the pages.”
The winners of all the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Award Dinner in London, on October 24th.