Photo: ANDREW MEDICHINI / TT NYHETSBYRÅN

Tom Hanks to produce and star in the remake of ‘A Man Called Ove’

Tom Hanks will star as Ove in the American remake of A Man Called Ove, based on the international bestseller by Fredrik Backman and its Swedish film adaptation produced by SF Studios and written and directed by Hannes Holm. Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce the movie together with Rita Wilson and Fredrik Wikström Nicastro at SF Studios.

Fredrik Wikström Nicastro: “I strongly believe that A Man Called Ove is a universal story that resonates strongly with an American and international audience. Making this film with one of the world’s best and most acclaimed actors gives A Man Called Ove the best possible opportunity to once again touch the hearts of audiences worldwide.”

Rita Wilson: “This story about love, tolerance and hope amplifies the qualities in movies that are hallmarks of the classic films we know and love. A Man Called Ove transcended the language barrier to touch readers and audiences in ways we long for. What an honor to be part of such beautiful material.”

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Jo Nesbø and Arne Dahl No. 2 on the German hardcover and paperback lists

Jo Nesbø’s The Thirst, the eleventh Harry Hole novel, has gone straight to No. 2 on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list for hardcover fiction after being published in Germany just last Friday.

Arne Dahl’s Hinterlands meanwhile claims the No. 2 spot on Der Spiegel’s paperback list. This marks Hinterlands’ third week on the list.

‘In Every Moment We Are Still Alive’ chosen as an Indies Introduce title

Tom Malmquist’s In Every Moment We Are Still Alive has been chosen as an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce title in the US. Indies Introduce is a program created to promote debut authors at independent bookstores in America. Each season a panel of booksellers reads debut works submitted to them by publishers, and choose ten titles for the special honor of being included on their list of recommended titles. In Every Moment We Are Still Alive has been chosen for the Winter / Spring 2018 list. Below are two blurbs by panel members.

“Malmquist’s writing style is unlike any I’ve recently experienced. He captures the ordinariness of daily life and of systems—medical, government—and the mundane choices we must make as citizens of these worlds. His ear for dialogue, be it in sterile hospital quarters or with family and friends, makes you feel present and privileged to be part of the conversation.”
-Janine De Boisblanc, Orinda Books (Orinda, CA)

“Tom’s girlfriend, Karin, is his soulmate. They are in love and about to start a family, but the birth of their daughter, Livia, reveals a terrible truth: Karin has leukemia. As Tom is left to mourn her death and raise their daughter on his own, he wavers between rage and depression and struggles with the challenges of his new life. This remarkable, partially biographical debut novel will make your heart ache with empathy, then send your spirit soaring with hope. It’s sad, funny, devastating, and encouraging, all in one package. Readers who appreciate real, accessible characters and those who may be struggling with questions thrown at them by life’s unexpected turmoil will love the chance to embrace this novel. Book clubs are urged to not overlook a chance for serious discussion on the topic of untimely death, responsibility fulfilled, and hope for the future.”
-Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane, WA)

‘Yes No Maybe’ winner of two awards at the Fuengirola International Film Festival

Yes No Maybe, directed and written by Mads Rosenkrantz Grage, has won the Fuengirola Web Fest Award, part of the Official Webseries Section at the 6th Fuengirola International Film Festival. Mads Rosenkrantz Grage himself also won an award for ‘Best Director of Webseries’ with Yes No Maybe.

‘Deeds of Fall’ published in Sweden

It’s a late summer’s eve in 1990 and five childhood friends have set up camp by their secret bathing spot, a closed quarry on one of southern Sweden’s mountain ridges. The mood is effervescent, but under the surface tensions run deep. Though the evening is supposed to be a last farewell to their childhoods and each other, not everyone is ready to let go, or be left behind. When dawn breaks and the first fall rain has subsided, a body is floating in the dark waters of the quarry. The police label it a tragic accident, but not everyone is convinced.

For twenty-seven years, the accident remains an open wound in the community, a conflict waiting to catch fire. When the old chief of police is replaced by Anna Vesper, a newly arrived homicide detective from Stockholm, things start moving. Soon Anna is left with no choice but to ignore all warnings and reopen the case from that autumn in 1990. An autumn that few will admit to remembering, but nonetheless refuses to be forgotten.

Deeds of Fall is the second installment in Anders de la Motte’s series of stand-alone suspense novels set in southern Sweden.

‘Island of Souls’ published in Finland

An autumn night in 1891, Kristina Andersson drowns her two sleeping children in the Aura river. When their pale faces have faded from view she rows home. The next morning regret sets in, but it’s too late. Kristina is sent to the asylum on Själö, an island in the Åbo archipelago. It’s a place few ever leave.

Forty years later, it’s seventeen-year-old Elli’s turn. The daughter of a bourgeois family, Elli wants something more than what the rigid structure of her family home can offer. She gets a summer job at an office, falls head over heels in love and runs away only to be embroiled in a Bonnie and Clyde-style set-up by a spurned lover. When she’s caught she too is brought to Själö, where time seems to have come to a standstill. The nurse Sigrid becomes the link between Kristina and Elli, the old and the new. But time is threatening to catch up with Själö and its inhabitants. War is brewing in Europe and will soon touch their shores too.

Johanna Holmström’s evocative and striking tale Island of Souls has its basis in reality and the tragic human fates that permeated the walls of the real-life asylum on Själö. Island of Souls is a novel about motherhood, the evil, the good, and the utterly ordinary. About the price that three women must pay for their weakness, longing, love, sorrow and friendship. But most of all perhaps, it is a book about madness, and how its definition has shifted as it has been used on women throughout time.

‘Hinterlands’ No. 1 in Germany

Hinterlands, the second installment in Arne Dahl’s series about Berger and Blom, is No. 1 on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list.

The Swedish bestseller lists for August

The official Swedish bestseller list for August is in, and Lars Kepler comes in at No. 2 on the paperback list with The Rabbit Hunter. Anders de la Motte’s End of Summer is right behind at No. 3, and Fredrik Backman occupies the No. 4 spot with Beartown.

Fredrik Backman also features at No. 4 on the hardcover list with his latest novel, Us Against You. On the audio book and e-book list Jens Lapidus comes in at No. 2 and No. 3 with Top Dog. Jonas Bonnier’s The Helicopter Heist is No. 4 on the audio list.

‘The Hills’ published in Norway

The restaurant The Hills stands at the center of Matias Faldbakken’s new novel, a story of waiters and regulars, chandeliers and cloakroom attendants, mezzanines and storage cellars, bar managers and in-house pianists. It’s a continental interior that greets the visitor as they enter the premises, a downtrodden mosaic of concentric circles on the floor and walls covered in portraits, drawings, paintings and stamps. The one who guides the reader through this landscape is a waiter at the establishment, a veteran of thirteen years. With utter discretion and a complete knowledge of all that goes on in his domain, he is the eyes and ears of the novel.

The ideas and ambience of old Europe are carefully guarded at the run-down restaurant. A well-established order wherein everything has its place rules, and little to nothing of the outside world intrudes. Until the threat of unrest and change comes anyway, in the innocuous form of a young woman quietly taking a seat among the regulars.

The Hills is an unexpected, smart and entertaining novel about collapsing structures and a world caught somewhere between diligence and decay. Matias Faldbakken possesses a rare talent for observation and an uncompromising eye for detail and humor as he pushes the performances of the novel to the point of absurdity, and does so in a manner that evokes a sense of unease as well as gravity.

Full-length international trailer for ‘The Snowman’ released