THE SECOND BOOK IN SARA BLÆDEL’S THE ‘FAMILY SECRETS’ TRILOGY OUT IN SWEDEN

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A woman’s murder is only the beginning as a daughter races to unravel the maze of secrets her father left behind–before she becomes the next victim–in the latest emotionally gripping novel from Sara Blaedel, #1 internationally bestselling author with over 3 million copies sold worldwide. Out in Sweden 5th of June.

After suddenly inheriting a funeral home from her father–who she hadn’t heard from in decades–Ilka Jensen has impulsively abandoned her quiet life in Denmark to visit the small town in rural Wisconsin where her father lived. There, she’s devastated to discover her father’s second family: a stepmother and two half sisters she never knew existed. And who aren’t the least bit welcoming, despite Ilka’s efforts to reach out.

Then a local woman is killed, seemingly the unfortunate victim of a home invasion turned violent. But when Ilka learns that the woman knew her father, it becomes increasingly clear that she may not have been a completely random victim after all.

The more Ilka digs into her father’s past, the more deeply entangled she becomes in a family drama that has spanned decades and claimed more than one life–and she may be the next victim…

‘Ilkas arv‘ is the second book in the ‘Family Secrets’ trilogy.

Kerstin Rydén rates the novel 4 out of 5 in her BTJ-review (nr 12, 2020) and writes:

Ilka has stayed in the US and continues to try and solve the economic issues of the funeral parlor, while the mysteries thickens. […] In the search for truth, Ilka becomes involved in shady business, assault and murder, most of it with connections to the father’s American family. […] The novel ends with not just one, but two completely unexpected cliffhangers. This well written and brilliantly translated book is, in regards to the content, darker and has a considerably stronger momentum and higher level of suspense than the first part. As a reader, you immediately long for the sequel.

The book is available on Adlibris, Bokus and Akademibokhandeln.

Happy Holidays from Nordin Agency

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Therese Bohman and Andrzej Tichý shortlisted for the August Prize 2016

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Nordin Agency congratulates Andrzej Tichý and Therese Bohman, both of which have been nominated for the August Prize 2016. Their novels Wretchedness (Eländet) and Eventide (Aftonland) represent the best in Swedish contemporary fiction.

Eventide is Therese Bohman’s third novel. Through serene prose, Bohman tells the story of an art professor who is looking for freedom, but only seems to find loneliness. An ideological novel where our protagonist is trying to find a way to be her own individual without adjusting to anyone else’s ideals.

The jury’s motivation for Eventide:
“The night is closing in over Stockholm and it’s late at Frescati. Karolina is a newly separated art professor supervising a student with a sensational approach to a female symbolist. She uses sex, wine and decadent art to move between the contemporaries whose company she is unhappy with. Her class trip has reinforced her loneliness and the sweetness of revenge is all that remains. Therese Bohman has written a perceptive novel of ideas, it’s delicate and seemingly digestible.”

Through Wretchedness, Andrzej Tichý tells a visceral and urgent story about a young cellist forced to confront suppressed memories of his upbringing in the suburbs of Malmö. His experimental prose and beautiful character depiction enhance the political undertone of this brilliant novel.

The jury’s motivation for Wretchedness:
“One morning a young cellist meets himself – or someone he could have been – in the form of a beggar. From a repressed past rises a flow of voices, which testifies to vulnerability, abuse and violence. What should survivors do with their history? Can you be in solidarity with the friends you left behind? Andrzej Tichý depicts a miserable reality in a hard-hitting form. His polyphonic novel has a hard, rhythmic language and an inexorable fury.”

Congratulations to both of these extremely talented authors!

The August Prize is named after the famous Swedish author August Strindberg, and is one of the most celebrated and prestigious literary prizes in Sweden.

Founded by the Swedish Publishers’ Association in 1989, the intention was to institute an annual award for the best Swedish books of the year in order to increase public interest in Swedish contemporary literature. The August Prize is awarded in three categories: Best Swedish Fiction Book of the Year, Best Swedish Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and Best Swedish Children’s Book of the Year.

Aftonland_Omslag  Skärmavbild 2016-10-24 kl. 20.47.36 Eländet

What lurks in the fog over the sea…

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Madelein Hessérus – one of the most compelling voices in contemporary Swedish literature

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“’The Elephant’s Foot is a beautiful, lingering novel: the plot is simple but the prose is intense and full of images.”
Josefin Holmström, Svenska Dagbladet

Hessérus, a graduate in Medicine from Uppsala University and a trained dancer from the Swedish Royal Ballet School, started out as a dramatist and wrote several plays for radio, television and the stage. However, it was her two collections of short stories, Not as Beautiful as in Valparaíso and The Dead Queen that introduced her original and graceful style of writing to a wider audience. Since then her novels To Isola and The City Without Women has enthralled readers with their visionary and multi-faceted stories, poetic narratives and  sharp criticism of modern urban life.

Her third novel, The Elephant’s Foot, was published in March 2016 marking the 25th anniversary of the disaster in Chernobyl. In it, we follow young, Swedish, biologist Katarina as she faces the perilous nature of the forbidden zone while navigating the politics of a small international team of scientists.

Scientific accuracy is pitted against irrationality, sense against sensibility. Madeleine Hessérus writes about love and human kind’s complex relationship with civilisation and nature in a lucid, eloquent prose.

”I read the book slowly to prolong the pleasure of the novel’s suggestive description of the scientists’ surprisingly passionate existences. Patiently gathering data, aloofness and envy, the irrational disgruntlement /… / Hessérus’ portrayal of the scientists’ expeditions into the zone is a literary achievement. The prose wriggles and almost spills out of the pages in the same way that the trees pierce through abandoned buildings in the real-life town of Pripyat / … / ‘The Elephant’s Foot’ is an oil painting disguised as a novel.”
Inga-Lina Lindqvist, Aftonbladet

”The writing in Madeleine Hessérus’ ‘The Elephant’s Foot’ is startlingly beautiful when she describes how nature is reclaiming the zone, the sealed off area around Chernobyl’s quarantined nuclear power plant.”Milena Bergquist, Femina