Martin Widmark occupies three of the top spots on the children’s books list this week. First, at No. 1, is The Dinosaur Mystery, followed by The Masquerade Mystery at No. 3, and The Birthday Mystery at No. 4.
Photo: Jarli&Jordan
The Oslo City Artist Prize has just been awarded to Oliver Lovrenski, for his debut novel Back in the Day.
The prize has been presented since 1978 to individuals, groups or cultural entities who in the last year have made outstanding contributions Oslo’s arts scene.
The motivation reads as follows:
“[Back in the Day] has attracted great attention for its energy, style, language, and the insight it provides into a world unfamiliar to much of the literary audience. Humor, loyalty, and friendship are central themes. Lovrenski also received the Bookseller’s Prize of 2023, and was nominated for the Brage Prize with the same novel.
Oliver Lovrenski is awarded the 2023 Oslo City Artist Prize for his exceptional portrayal of an authentic, stylish, and important story about today’s youth in Oslo.”
The prize is awarded by the Business Committee upon recommendation from the Cultural and Education Committee of the Oslo City Council. All residents of Oslo can make nominations for the prize, and the award ceremony will take place on the 21st of March at Oslo City Hall.
The shortlist for the 2024 Riverton Prize has just been announced in Norway, and Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger’s Victim and Anne Holt’s Twelve Untamed Horses are two out of five novels nominated for the prestigious crime writing award, annually given to the best Norwegian crime story.
Victim is the fifth installment in Horst & Enger’s Blix & Ramm series, and the award jury presents the following motivation for the nomination: “Horst and Enger’s collaborative project is seamless, with evocative details, surprises and cliffhangers — a genre-conscious page-turner.”
Twelve Untamed Horses is the twelfth installment in Anne Holt’s Hanne Wilhelmsen series, and the jury praises it in the following way: “Holt’s twelfth novel about Hanne Wilhelmsen is an extravagant, richly branched crime mystery with many twists and turns that delivers stylishly to the last page.”
The winner will be bestowed with the award on the 14th of March in The House of Literature in Oslo.
For the third consecutive week, the twenty-sixth Detective Agency No. 2 title, Operation Eeny Meeny, is No. 3 on the Norwegian bestseller list for children’s books.
Ulf Kvensler’s thrilling debut, The Couples Trip, is No. 3 on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list for trade paperback fiction this week.
Photo: Rickard Eriksson
Anders Rydell and Jesper Huor’s non-fiction odyssey, Destroy the False Gods, has been nominated to one of Swedish journalism’s most prestigious awards, Guldspaden, in the Book-category.
The prize has been awarded annually since 1991, to “journalists – active in Swedish media – who through committed and knowledgeable journalism have revealed or depicted essential conditions that the public was previously unaware of. The investigation should be an original work, independently carried out.”
The winners will be announced between the 22nd and 23rd of March.
Jo Nesbø’s Killing Moon stays put at No. 1 on the official bestseller list for paperbacks in Sweden. This marks the title’s fifth consecutive week on the list.
The clever Bacon brothers are a bit younger than Jerry and Maya, and they are The JerryMaya Detective Agency’s biggest fans! The Bacon brothers solve slightly nicer crimes, but in The Secret Key they are given a tricky challenge. The brothers find a mysterious key and no one knows where it leads. It can lead almost anywhere!
Everyone in Valleby seem to have issues with their keys. Muhammed Karat has been locked out of his store, Frida at the animal store cannot get to the animal food, and Fransy Vik has lost the key to her locker by the swimming pool. The Bacon brothers have to use their best detective knowledge to be able to help the town.
The Secret Key is the third installment in the Stories from Valleby series, perfect for the beginner reader!
Thorkild Aske is sought out in his home by an old enemy, a man that has already attempted to kill him twice. The man has been assigned a mission: to kill four people within a week, or his kidnapped eight-year-old nephew will die. Now he needs Aske’s help to carry out the job.
Harvester of sorrow is Riverton prize-winning author Heine Bakkeid’s fifth crime novel in the acclaimed Thorkild Aske-series.
Today, Netflix released a first look-trailer of Hans Rosenfeldt’s adaptation of Ronja the Robber’s Daughter, which will premiere on March 28th.
Ronja the Robber’s Daughter follows the adventures of a spirited and rebellious girl born into a gang of robbers in a medieval Scandinavian castle. As Ronja grows up, she discovers the magical, but dangerous forest with its strange and mysterious creatures. Yet she feels more at home in the forest than behind the walls of the huge castle. When Ronja meets the young boy Birk from a rival gang, it marks the beginning of a dark family feud and a forbidden friendship emerges, all while a notorious bailiff arrives to rid the forest of robbers once and for all.
In an expansive yet faithful reimagine of the classic tale, written by Hans Rosenfeldt and directed by Lisa James Larsson, viewers are re-introduced to one of the most beloved stories in Sweden.
The series is being released in two parts, and stars Kerstin Linden, Christopher Wagelin, Sverrir Gudnason, Pernilla August and Johan Ulveson, among others.
Ronja the Robber’s Daughter Part 1 is launching in the Nordics, CEE, UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands on March 28th. Part 2 will follow later in 2024.
Finland, Otava
Closed by Linda Andersson
Taiwan, Sun Color
Closed by Emma Granberg
North Macedonia, Bata Press
Two-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
Arab World, Al Arabi
Closed by Emma Granberg
Arab World, Al Arabi
Closed by Emma Granberg
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
Two-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
The Russos make the most of their enormous budget, with a boatload of impressive visual effects, faithful recreations of Stålenhag’s epic vistas, and some nicely analogue art direction.
– Empire
The Stranger Things star, Chris Pratt and the Russo Brothers have made a Spielbergian treat. /…/ (…) what fun it is to watch a film this expensive and not be able to quite work out where it’s going – or even if it might just stay put for a bit, and soak up the dustily poetic death-of-the-American century vibe.
– The Telegraph
The Electric State is good. (…) [It’s] entertaining, stylish, and lavish. /…/ The 90s had little to nothing to do with the book, but it is the focus here, and in more ways than one, I think it works… and really well too. /…/ I had fun, from start to finish.
– Gamereactor
(…) you can certainly take away one thing from The Electric State, a strong message celebrating our differences and the fact that despite the technological advancements our world faces every day, nothing will ever replace human connection.
– GamesRadar
I liked the film’s great visuals, solid VFX, the world building and loved how it captured the dystopian atmosphere while remaining family friendly. I also absolutely adored the star cast, especially the incredible voice actors and the underlying message of inclusivity in today’s world that is highly polarised.
– MensXP
In Wolf Hour, Jo Nesbø sets the action in the American Midwest in 2016. A hard-boiled police novel in the best Nesbø style – from an America that’s on the edge of a precipice.
