The incredibly successful Netflix series A Nearly Normal Family has together with the immensely popular series Blackwater been nominated for Sweden’s Ria Awards 2024 in the category ‘Best Scripted Series’. A Nearly Normal Family is written by Anna Platt and Hans Jörnlind, with Per Hanefjord directing. Blackwater is written by Karin Arrhenius and Maren Louise Käehne, and directed by Mikael Marcimain.

The Ria Awards draws attention to and rewards the best creators, authors and employees in the Swedish television production industry. The winners will be announced on March 7 at Cirkus in Stockholm.

“This time, he hasn’t written a perfect novel. Book of Events is something much better than that.” – Göteborgs-Posten

A dizzying mosaic novel about power, powerlessness, and the power of imagination. On a playground in Malmö, a girl takes her own life with pills she stole from her mother. A young man discovers her but doesn’t seek any help, as he doesn’t want to involve the authorities. A few days later he is found, knocked out in a stairwell, by a former radical writer down on his luck who lets him sleep off the high on his couch. Somehow, their lives are connected by a number of people and events, scattered in time and space. A psychedelic dance of death, in which sharp contemporary realism is mixed with lively satire.

Andrzej Tichý (b. 1978) was born in Prague to a Polish mother and a Czech father and has lived in Sweden since 1981. He is the author of five novels, a story collection and a wide range of nonfiction and criticism. Tichý has received critical acclaim for his work, and is widely recognized as one of the most important novelists of his generation.

It is now official that the much-anticipated series Jana – Marked for Life and Fury Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video.

The new thriller series Jana – Marked for Life follows the investigation of a murder of a high-ranking official at the Swedish Migration Agency. When the main suspect is also found dead, Jana immediately recognizes something on his scarred body.

The six episodes are created and directed by Henrik Björn and Felix Herngren. Daniel Sawka is head-writer together with Maria Karlsson.

The second season of the record-breaking Norwegian series Furia takes place two years after the first. Security police agents Ragna and Asgeir continue to battle extremist forces in Norway – but when an undercover mission goes wrong, the two are forced into a new race against time to foil a terrorist plot. Fury Season One will also be available on Prime Video. 

Furia season two is created by Gjermund Stenberg Eriksen with Magnus Martens directing.

Andreas Hjertø, Head of Content at Prime Video Nordics, expressed his enthusiasm, stating: “We’re excited to add these locally produced Original TV series by the best Nordic creators and featuring highly popular Nordic talent to our slate. We are constantly evolving and improving our selection of great series and movies, and we’re looking forward to delighting our customers with these fantastic titles.” 

Moa Backe Åstot’s Flutters of the Heart has been shortlisted for Norrland’s Literature Prize in the category children’s & YA literature. The prize has been awarded annually since 1973 to the best book that has a clear connection to the Swedish north.

In 2022, Moa Backe Åstot was awarded the prize for her debut novel Fire From the Sky.

Oliver Lovrenski’s award-winning debut Back in the Day has been shortlisted for the Tarjei Vesaas’ debutant prize. The prize is awarded annually for the best first literary work in Norwegian and was instituted in 1964 by Tarjei Vesaas.

The jury, consisting of members from the Norwegian Authors’ Union write their motivation as follows:

“In a compellingly rhythmic and musical language, Oliver Lovrenski writes a coming-of-age depiction alongside the traditional Norwegian narrative. In Back in the Day, we meet Igor and his friends, a group of young boys from various parts of the world. In Lovrenski’s succinct prose, dreams are built up and torn down again. The boys find camaraderie in their outsider status. Yet, the longing for a lost sense of security seeps to the surface and strikes the reader with precision. With linguistic sensitivity and a generous dose of humor, the reader is propelled through Oslo’s underground at a high pace. It is an impressively well-composed work that has made a powerful impact on the Norwegian public.”

The winner will be announced on the 9th of March.

Tonight, Jo Nesbø was given the prestigious Pepe Carvalho Award at a ceremony held at Barcelona City Hall, in connection to the BCNegra Festival.

The Pepe Carvalho Award is a tribute to the memory of Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalban and his famous detective Pepe Carvalho, who contributed to the revival of crime fiction in Europe in the 70s. The prize is given by the Barcelona City Council in recognition of prestigious national and international crime fiction writers.

The jury of the award considers that “since the beginning of his literary career, Nesbø has demonstrated a solvency, ambition and narrative generosity that has made his readers addicted to everything he publishes”.

“In a book by Nesbø we always have one, two, three lines of argument, an accurate documentation that reminds us more of a curious spirit than a functionary of writing, the necessary dose of intrigue, action and psychology of the characters, as well as a look at his society that does not skimp on criticism of the open wounds of a past that not everyone wants to accept”, the jury said.

Previous recipients of the award includes Maj Sjöwall, Joyce Carol Oates, James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow, among else.

Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV festival and forum, has revealed its impressive 2024 main competition lineup, which includes Øystein Karlsen’s So Long, Marianne. The original series, created by Karlsen, stars Alex Wolff and Thea Sofie Loch Næss and tells the legendary love story of Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen, and his muse Marianne Ihlen.

So Long, Marianne will have its world premiere at the festival, which takes place in Lille, France, 15-22 March.

2024’s winner of the Finnish Whodunnit Society’s Honorary Award for foreign crime fiction is none other than Jørn Lier Horst. An annual honorary award, the winner is selected by the Board of the Whodunnit Society in consultation with the editor-in-chief of the magazine Ruumiin kulttuuri (Body Culture). More than twenty international authors – among them Colin Dexter, Patricia Highsmith, P. D. James, Håkan Nesser, Henning Mankell, Fred Vargas, Keigo Higashino, and Pierre Lemaitre – have received the award since 1993.

The jury motivates their choice thusly:

“Norwegian Jørn Lier Horst is known to crime and suspense fiction fans for his police novel series William Wisting. Because of his police background, the Wisting books have a realistic portrayal of police investigations. In the Wisting series, Horst successfully combines past and present. His style is clear and recognizable, with philosophical reflections on the nature of evil and a fast-paced plot that draws the reader in. The characters are easy to get attached to and to care about.

The Finnish Whodunnit Society would like to use this recognition to draw attention to Horst’s other side as a writer and to thank him for this as well. Horst has written dozens of children’s and young adult detective stories, which have also been translated into Finnish. The children’s detective series Detective Agency No. 2 /…/ and the youth detective series Clue are very popular, for example in the children’s sections of Finnish libraries.”

Established by Swedish magazine QX in 1999, the QX Awards are an annual event celebrating and awarding LGBT achievements. Jonas Gardell is the proud winner of the 2024 Novel of the Year award, which he receives for his latest title, Sissy.