In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside along with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car nears the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

Simon Stålenhag is the internationally lauded artist and author of Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood, the narrative art books that stunned the world with a vision of an alternative 1980’s and 1990’s Scandinavia, where technology has invaded the tranquil landscapes to form an entirely new universe of the eerie and the nostalgic. Now, Stålenhag turns his unique vision to America in a new narrative art book: The Electric State.

Stefan Ahnhem’s third Fabian Risk novel stays at No. 3 on the official Norwegian bestseller list for paperbacks. This marks Eighteen Below Zero’s ninth consecutive week on the list.

Anders Weidemann has been chosen as a recipient of this year’s SF Bio Children’s Film Grant for Monky, a moving and action-packed children’s film set to premiere in Sweden on December 22nd. The film is based on Weidemann’s original idea, and he has also written the script. The other two recipients of the grant are Patrick Ryborn and Maria Blom, producer and director of the film, respectively.

The SF Bio Children’s Film Grant is part of SF Bio’s (Sweden’s largest cinema chain) initiative to promote Swedish children’s cinema. The grant will be handed out during BUFF, the International Children and Young People’s Film Festival, in Malmö in March, 2018.

The jury motivates their choice of winners with the following:

“During the process of selecting this year’s winner, there was one movie that stood out and caught the jury’s interest early on – a film that is at heart a serious original story, but at the same time has a wide audience appeal and high creative ambitions. The film is an excellent example of how an idea is born, and is made into reality through common efforts, where the result has the potential to be the big, heart-warming family film of this holiday season. The jury has therefore decided that the grant will be divided equally between three recipients. The SF Bio Children’s Film Grant of 100.000 kronor is awarded to the creative triumvirate behind the film Monky: screenwriter Anders Weidemann, producer Patrick Ryborn, and director Maria Blom.”

Jo Nesbø’s The Thirst, Kristina Ohlsson’s The Flood, Jens Lapidus’ Top Dog and Anders de la Motte’s Deeds of Fall have all been shortlisted for the Swedish book award The Grand Audiobook Prize in the ‘Suspense’ category.

Fredrik Backman’s Us Against You and And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer are both shortlisted in the ‘Literary Fiction’ category, and Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin’s The Tractor Who Wants To Fall Asleep is shortlisted in the ‘Children’s Books’ category.

The winners of The Grand Audiobook Prize will be crowned in March 2018 at an award gala in Stockholm. To vote for your favorite author and audiobook, click “Read more” below.