Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin’s children’s book turned international phenomenon continues to wow parents and guardians across the globe. Today on June 1st, Amazon Japan and Oricon, the largest sales ranking company in Japan, announced that The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep became the No. 1 most sold book in Japan during the first half of 2016, across all categories. This is the first time ever that a non-Japanese author has claimed the No. 1 position, as is it the first time ever that a children’s book has done so.

Bobbie Peers’ William Wenton and the Luridium Thief has been crowned the winner of 2016’s Book of the Year award in Norway. All together 7000 children from 69 school classes around Stavanger have participated in the vote for their favorite novels and authors. Bobbie Peers and William Wenton won in the category Grade 5-7, and will meet one of the participating school classes at an event in September, during Stavanger's international literary festival, Kapittel.

Kristina Ohlsson and her Glass Children Trilogy and Zombie Fever have been shortlisted for the first ever Crimetime Specsavers Award in the category ‘Children’s Crime Fiction of the Year’. The award will be handed out in connection with the Crimetime festival in Gotland, Sweden, on August 20th. The authors shortlisted have all contributed to increasing children’s interest in reading by writing suspense or crime fiction for ages 6-12.

Jake Gyllenhaal is reteaming with Sicario director Denis Villeneuve to bring Jo Nesbø’s crime novel The Son to the big screen. This will mark the third collaboration for Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve, following Prisoners and Enemy. Nine Stories’ producers Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker and Bold Film’s Michel Litvak are behind this project; Bold’s Gary Michael Walters is executive producing with Jo Nesbo and Niclas Salomonsson.

“Denis is one of the most inspiring filmmakers working today, and partnering with him on The Son represents everything that Jake and I strived for when we launched the company. Provocative and edgy material in collaboration with a visionary storyteller,” Marker said Thursday in announcing the project.

Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry comes in at No. 6 in its fifth week on The New York Times Best Seller List. Backman’s debut novel A Man Called Ove rises to No. 2 once more in its 21st consecutive week on the list.

Leif GW Persson, Roslund & Thunberg and Johan Theorin have all been nominated for the CWA International Dagger 2016. The novels nominated for the prestigious award are The Sword of Justice by Leif GW Persson, The Father by Roslund & Thunberg (written under the pen name Anton Svensson), and The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin.

Jørn Lier Horst is the winner of the Petrona Award 2016 for ‘Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year’ for his novel The Caveman. The jury motivates their choice of the novel and Jørn Lier Horst with the following official comment:

“The Caveman is a gripping police procedural drawing on Jørn Lier Horst’s experiences as a murder detective. All the books in the ‘William Wisting’ series have had compelling narratives and The Caveman is no exception, exploring a Norwegian society where, in a supposedly close-knit community, a man can lie dead at home unnoticed and unmourned for weeks. Excellent plotting, well-drawn characters and writing of the highest quality make this book a worthy winner of the 2016 Petrona Award.”

Previous winners are Liza Marklund (2013), Leif GW Persson (2014) and Yrsa Sigurdardottir (2015).

Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is back among the New York Times Best Seller List’s top ten, shooting up to No. 5 in its fourth week. It is joined by A Man Called Ove, which comes in at No. 3 in its 20th consecutive week on the list.

Dakota Fanning will star in Academy Award-winning director Janusz Kaminski’s upcoming thriller The Postcard Killings, the movie based on Liza Marklund and James Patterson’s novel Postcard Killers. The screenplay is written by Liza Marklund, Tove Alsterdal and Andrew Stern and it centers on a New Yorker as his life is thrown into turmoil when he learns that his newly married daughter has been brutally murdered. As he digs into the case, similar crimes are reported across Europe with each killing accompanied by a postcard sent to a local journalist. As he follows the trail of clues, a young reporter — played by Fanning — receives the next postcard.