The nominations for this year’s Guldbagge Awards have been presented, and Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo received a staggering eight nominations, including ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Screenplay.’
The Guldbagge Awards ceremony, hosted by actress Shima Niavarani, will be held at Cirkus in Stockholm on January 13, 2025. Swedish Television (SVT) will be broadcasting the event live.
Jørn Lier Horst’s Dry Land, the latest installment in the bestselling Wisting series, tops both the hardcover and e-book bestseller lists this week.
Photo: Carla Orrego Veliz; Rickard Eriksson
Each year, the Albert Bonnier Scholarship Foundation awards eight scholarships to support, encourage, and celebrate authors writing in Swedish. These scholarships are distributed across the following categories: fiction writers, poets, cultural journalists, translators, illustrators/designers, and non-fiction writers.
Both Anders Rydell and Andrzej Tichý are among this year’s recipients. Tichý, who released his critically acclaimed Book of Events in February, is one of the recipients in the fiction category. Rydell, whose latest work is the highly praised Stolen Music, is one of two recipients in the non-fiction category.
As the year 2024 is coming to an end, Swedish newspaper Falu-Kuriren has listed its best suspense novels of 2024. Among the selected titles are No One by Pascal Engman, The Rust Forest by Anders de la Motte, and Grand Finale by Jens Lapidus. The paper offers the following reviews:
“With journalistic sharpness, Pascal Engman has the ability to create suspense literature in which he puts his finger on different societal issues. Detective Vanessa Frank and her colleagues are recurring characters, but Engman puts as much care into criminals and victims in his stories. /…/ The many threads are intertwined to a ball that rolls faster and faster. Pascal Engman writes highly topical suspense like no other.”
“De La Motte’s writing is impressive, and The Rust Forest is definitely worth a read.”
“Jens Lapidus’ Top Dog series has been influential in shaping both novels and TV shows about Stockholm’s underworld as it appears today. With this, he brings the series to the finish line, and it is truly a Grand Finale.”
This week, Lisa Ridzén’s When The Cranes Fly South claims the No. 1 spot on the bestselling list for paperbacks, closely followed by Liza Marklund’s Storm Mountain at No. 3. Lars Kepler’s The Sleepwalker holds the No. 2 spot on the hardcover list, while Tina Mackic’s The Summer Shadow and the Christmas Prank, comes in at No. 3 on the children’s list.
Sydsvenskan, the largest newspaper in southern Sweden, has announced its list of this year’s best books, featuring the acclaimed works Book of Events by Andrzej Tichý and Stolen Music by Anders Rydell. The newspaper offers the following reviews of the books:
“What a privilege it is to be human and to read the nearly 700-page-long Book of Events. Andrzej Tichý—Sweden’s master of darkness—has written a completely brilliant and twisted novel about racism, violence, and vulnerability. It is a pleasure to follow Tichý into the heart of darkness.”
“With immense knowledge and passion, Anders Rydell portrays the horrifying campaign in the Third Reich to erase Jewish musicians and their works from history.”
The official Finnish bestseller list for the month of November is out, and The Sleepwalker ranked No. 1 in the translated category for hardcover, audiobook, and e-book formats. Moreover, it secured the No. 5 spot across all formats.
Lars Kepler’s latest installment in the bestselling Joona Linna series, The Sleepwalker, debuts at No. 1 on the Czech Republic official bestseller list this week.
Lars Kepler’s The Sleepwalker remains firmly at the top of the e-book bestseller list, holding steady at No. 1. Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger’s Victim continues to secure the No. 2 spot on the paperback list. Meanwhile, Jørn’s Dry Land ranks No. 2 in both the hardcover and e-book categories.
Friday December 6 saw the premiere of Jönssonligan kommer tillbaka in Swedish cinemas. The heist comedy has received great reviews, many of them praising the film for bringing the old and beloved characters into a new contemporary context.
Eddie Åhgren is directing the film with a stellar cast including Robert Gustafsson, Jonas Karlsson, Anders Jansson, Jennie Silfverhjelm, Arvin Kananian and Johan Rabaeus.
Spain, Duomo
Closed by Linda Andersson
UK, Bloomsbury
Closed by Josephine Oxelheim
Korea, Dasan
Closed by Emma Granberg
Netherlands, De Geus
Two-book deal closed by Tor Jonasson
Hungary, Libri/Helikon
Closed by Emma Granberg
Croatia, Znanje
Closed by Emma Granberg
Those who have read and appreciated The Crow Girl trilogy will find the same creeping sense of unease in The Peacock Man. Erik Axl Sund excels at creating that unsettling atmosphere. The authors also have a remarkable talent for portraying wounded, broken individuals in a way that feels authentic. /…/ The greatest reward lies in the depiction of Mauritz Möller—pitiful, even repulsive, yet utterly fascinating to follow.
– Gefle Dagblad
Rosenfeldt is undeniably a talented writer of suspense. I find Harvest Child a step above its predecessor.
– Göteborgs-Posten
As the consummate professional he is, Hans Rosenfeldt succeeds in bringing all the threads together into a brilliant crescendo.
– Senioren
The language of the novel is lyrical and flowing. For me, the reading experience feels like being swept away by a powerful current; I have no control, yet I’m completely carried along. /…/ The freedoms Fagerholm takes with language are what make the novel feel both liberated and deeply personal.
– Västra Nyland
The author duo writes with a constantly turned-on drive and creates scenes that are difficult to shake. /…/ [SON] is a book you’ll struggle to put down and once you finally do, you’ll have to pick your jaw up from the floor following an ending that hardly anyone saw coming.
– Göteborgsposten
Diamonds and Rust is a story about wounds that never heal, about envy, betrayal and revenge, and about a crime so well and thoroughly thought out that it may never be solved. Not unless Hanne Wilhelmsen gets a chance to try.