The Swedish e-book service Nextory has announced this year’s winners in their 2022 Nextory E-Book Awards, a prize that is annually handed out to the most read e-book titles of the previous year. Anders Hansen’s Brain Blues is the winner in the Society & Politics category and Björn Natthiko Lindeblad’s I May Be Wrong takes it home in the Biography & Reportage category.
Anne Holt’s The Eleventh Manuscript comes in at No. 1 on the official Norwegian bestseller list for paperback this week, followed by Jo Nesbø’s The Jealousy Man and Other Stories at No. 2 and Hjorth & Rosenfeldt’s As You Sow at No. 3.
Photo: Appendix Fotografi
Author Martin Österdahl (b. 1973) has a background as Programme Director of SVT and in television production. Since 2020 he shoulders the role as Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest.
With his new stand-alone thriller A New Year’s Ending, Österdahl establishes himself as one of the most exciting new voices in the domestic noir genre.
Lizz runs the clinic Pure Pleasure, alongside her husband Boje. Here the clients get to explore their desires and lusts by means of tailored programs and advanced sensors. The couple make good money and live with their daughter Thelma in a nice neighborhood. But the family does not fit in, the family life is fraught with conflict and Lizz is growing increasingly restless. When a young man enters Pure Pleasure one day and requests a program where nature is the object of desire, Lizz begins to reminisce about her past. A birthmark on the man’s stomach awakens memories of the children she gave up as a young surrogate and the longing that has haunted her ever since.
A transformed Norway emerges in Sara Johnsen’s For Dancing Boy, as protagonist Lizz tells of a life characterized by the unpredictable forces in sexuality and nature, about the yearning for pleasure, about fallibility, longing and love.
Friday March 18 will see the premiere of Beck 46: The Crying Policeman. This time around, the Beck team’s case revolves around a brutal and fatal attack on a police academy bus. This is suspected to have connections to previous criticism of, and demonstrations against, the police. But when no one steps forward and assumes responsibility for the assassination, the team begins to dig deeper. This case also becomes personal for Martin Beck (Peter Haber) as his grandson Vilhelm (Valter Skarsgård) who attends the Police Academy could have been on the bus.
Beck 46: The Crying Policeman is written by Fredrik Agetoft and directed by Lisa Ohlin.
The shortlist for the 2022 Riverton Prize has just been announced in Norway, and Heine Bakkeid’s St. Avenger and Anne Holt’s The Eleventh Manuscript are two out of five novels nominated for the prestigious crime writing award, annually given to the best Norwegian crime story.
St. Avenger is the fourth installment in Heine Bakkeid’s Thorkild Aske series, and as part of their motivation the award jury lauds the novel by saying : “This well-constructed and well-written crime novel hold us in a tight grip of fear and worry until the very end.”
The Eleventh Manuscript is the eleventh installment in Anne Holt’s Hanne Wilhelmsen series, and the award jury praises it in the following way: “Veteran author Anne Holt has rarely been as brilliant as she is here, with her old and wise hero Hanne Wilhelmsen as a somewhat reluctant protagonist of this extremely well-written suspense novel.”
The winner will be bestowed with the award on the 7th of April in The House of Literature in Oslo.
Jørn Lier Horst’s recently published A Will to Serve is featured as No. 2 on Bog & Idé’s list of the best crime fiction this spring. Bog & Idé is Denmark’s biggest book retailer.
The Truth Will Out Season 2 premiered on Viaplay last year to outstanding reviews and is the most watched Swedish series this year so far on the popular streaming site. On Wednesday March 16, Season 2 will become available for streaming on Discovery+ and air on channel 5.
The runaway hit crime drama series is based on an original idea by the award-winning author and criminologist Leif GW Persson, and is written and created by Aron Levander and Hans Jörnlind. They are joined by episode writer Anna Platt.
The spectacular, creative and lauded video game It Takes Two has received a staggering nine nominations for the 2022 British Academy Game Awards, including ‘Best Game,’ ‘Artistic Achievement,’ ‘Narrative,’ ‘Original Property’ and ‘Game Beyond Entertainment.’
The Bafta Game Awards have been recognizing the cultural impact of games since 2004 and the awards are arguably the most prestigious in the gaming industry.
It Takes Two is written by Soni Jorgensen together with game director Josef Fares.
Jo Nesbø’s story collection Rat Island and Other Stories has gone straight to No. 1 on the Hungarian bestseller list upon publication.
Netherlands, Het Spectrum
Closed by Josephine Oxelheim
Lithuania, Baltos Lankos
Three-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
Estonia, Pegasus
Three-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
North Macedonia, Antolog
Two-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
North Macedonia, Antolog
Two-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
China, Beijing ST
Closed by Emma Granberg
What Tichý does refreshingly differently from our own authors is that he lets his experiments with form shape a story. It is never only about the sufferings of Ajsa, Mink, Edyta, Violeta, and the other residents of Malmö. It is always also about the way suffering becomes literature. While Tichý cross-cuts between narratives, while he shouts and whispers, cries and laments, and even occasionally laughs—yes, while he above all lets a wealth of voices other than his own be heard—we see a work take shape.
– Weekendavisen
Exquisitely plotted, darkly funny /…/Readers will have no doubt they’re in the hands of a brilliant storyteller. This soars.
– Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*
With echoes of such writers as Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Brookmyre, this is delicious stuff, expertly juggling dark humour and quirky characterisation against the backdrop of a frigid northern landscape.
– Financial Times
Baasmo is remarkable in the leading role. There’s something about him that makes us feel a kind of desperate sympathy for him, even when he’s at his worst.
– VG
This [adult fiction] debut is captivating – and at times frighteningly relatable. /…/ Villadsen has written a gripping plot, and the reader is on edge from the first page.
– Littuna.nu
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.