The Swedish booksellers’ association has announced a list of the most sold books of 2023 so far, and Jo Nesbø’s Killing Moon takes the No. 1 spot in the fiction category and comes in at No. 2 across all titles, just behind Sveriges Rikes Lag 2023 (Swedish Code of Statutes).
The teen drama series Beist, created and written by Ernst De Geer and Mads Stegger, premiered on NRK April 20. Ole Sebastian Kåss is directing and Max Campbell stars as the leading role Elias.
Beist follows sixteen-year-old Elias who is one of the best players in one of Norway’s premier youth football teams. Within five days he must prove that he has what it takes to be signed as a professional. How far is he willing to go to achieve this goal in a sport that is based on being a good team player?
Stefan Ahnhem’s Nothing But the Truth makes its debut on the official Swedish bestseller list, where it lands the No. 2 spot in the hardcover fiction category. Thomas Enger likewise makes his first appearance with the just published The Book of the Gallows, coming in at No. 6.
The third season of Øystein Karlsen’s hit TV series Exit premieres on Friday April 21 on SVT.
Exit season 3 premiered on NRK in March to mind-blowing viewer ratings, and is Scandinavia’s most viewed series of all time.
No one at school believes Vilda when she tells them she is Sámi. There are always a million questions: Do you speak Sámi? Do you own reindeer? Is your dad Sámi? But no matter what answers Vilda give, it’s like she’s not Sámi enough for them. She’s decided to change that. She’s going to start wearing gábdde, the traditional Sámi clothing, and ask her grandfather, the only one in her family who speaks Sámi, to teach her the language.
But when Vilda’s grandfather suddenly passes away, everything is turned upside down. Vilda has to navigate her Sámi heritage all on her own. At the funeral she meets Samuel. He is a few years older and has everything Vilda wants for herself: the gábdde, the reindeer, the language. Everything her grandfather never got the chance to give her. Perhaps Samuel can show her how to be Sámi instead?
Flutters of the Heart is a book about grief, love, and the right to define who you are.
Anders Hansen’s international bestseller The Happiness Cure enters the official Finnish bestseller list for non-fiction, taking the No. 2 spot on the March list.
Unscientific Studies: Nine pieces of evidence for things that likely haven’t happened is a collection of hilarious, brutal, surprising and thought-provoking short stories that take the reader for a true literary roller-coaster ride. In these stories, dads’ fingers may turn into delicious hotdogs, saffron buns might come alive and clouds can be tamed as pets. The nine featured short stories are each a piece of evidence for something that likely hasn’t happened…only one can’t really know for sure.
Scintillating with imagination and magnificent eccentrics, Unscientific Studies, written by Emma Karinsdotter and illustrated by Marcus-Gunnar Petterson, expands the horizons for what children’s literature can contain and demonstrates just how spectacularly text and image can play together.
Photo: Nikolaj Moeller
Gustav Möller has just completed shooting of his new psychological thriller Vogter, produced by Nordisk Film. For Vogter, Möller reunited with producer Line Flint, co-writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen, and cinematographer Jasper J. Spanning, the team that created his multi-awarded debut The Guilty (2018).
Danish star actress Sidse Babette Knudsen (Borgen, Wildland) plays the idealistic prison guard Eva, who is caught in the dilemma of her life when a young man from her past is placed in the prison where she works. Without revealing her secret, Eva asks to be moved to the young man’s ward, the toughest and most violent ward in the prison. There, an electrifying and unpredictable psychological game starts between them, where Eva’s sense of justice puts both her morality and future at stake.
The Danish theatrical release via Nordisk Film Distribution is scheduled for February 29, 2024.
Anders Hansen’s The Happiness Cure has now been sold to 35 territories! In his bestselling book, Hansen explores how our brains work in modern society and provides us with knowledge on how to best take care of both our bodies and minds.
Photo: Kiefer Lee
Before commencing his screenwriting career, Alexander Havelda graduated with a masters in international politics and political philosophy and began a path towards diplomacy. However, feeling increasingly drawn to storytelling, Havelda started working as a ghost writer for debate articles, and as a copywriter.
Meanwhile Havelda worked with Burkinabé-French filmmaker Dani Kouyaté for many years, learning how to write for film from him. He then decided to focus whole-heartedly on his screenwriting and has since developed and sold numerous projects to different production companies. In 2022, the comedy drama TV Series Korridoren premiered on C More, of which Havelda is creator and writer.
2021 saw the premiere of Havelda’s Czech short Can You Still Feel the Butterflies?, which has been screened at a multitude of festivals and exhibitions and won prestigious awards.
In his writing, Havelda likes to play with crude humor, balancing on the edge of what is taboo, often with an undertone of political and existential elements.
Havelda is currently working on two drama TV series with Unlimited Stories, a feature film with Jan Marnell and Right2Screen, and a comedy TV series with Toni Prince (Språk för alla).
China, Booky
Closed by The Grayhawk Agency on behalf of Ida Schabbauer
UK, Manilla Press
Two-book deal closed by Josephine Oxelheim
France, Buchet-Chastel
Two-book deal closed by Josephine Oxelheim
Netherlands, Gottmer
Three-book-deal closed by Linda Andersson
Estonia, Varrak
Two-book deal closed by Emma Granberg
Germany, HarperCollins
Closed by Senka Hasanovic
[A] superlative example of Scandi noir. /…/ A haunting tale that concludes with a sickening double twist. SON is everything a crime novel should be – and more.
– The Times
All in all, The Mother-in-Law is a brilliant book because it twists things around until you don’t know who to sympathize with in the end.
– WMN Magazin
When the Cranes Fly South is the kind of novel that goes straight to the heart. It’s both a beautiful and moving tale. I was completely captivated by the book and it will remain in my thoughts for a long time. It’s so wonderfully written, with sensitivity and empathy. For the first time ever, a book has moved me to tears.
– Randiglensbo.dk
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén is an extremely evocative title, a delicate story about what one faces as we grow older and a touching novel about fathers and sons as well as what it means to say goodbye.
– Today
Oksanen’s prose resonates with clarity and conviction. /…/ An exquisite feminist critique of Russia’s oppressive tactics.
– Kirkus Reviews
Psychologist Kari Voss is grieving for her dead husband when she is thrust into a shocking local investigation, when two teenage girls are violently murdered in a family summer home in the nearby village of Son.
