Parables from Paradise: A Selection of Dreams and Magical Tales

A prominent and attractive feature of Topelius’s tales are descriptions and interactions with Nature, as well as concern for the poor. Most importantly, the stories are well crafted and engaging, the storylines keep your attention by taking unexpected and dramatic turns. You want to read them to the end to find out what happens. So, read on!

Children’s stories for grown-ups too! Are you ready for adventures? Don’t you often find that on your way, something unexpected happens? This story collection chronicles the escapades of young people in Finland in days gone by. Follow them as they engage with nature and meet strange creatures. They discover the power of magic and dreams and get back home safely, maybe a little wiser.

Fatal Gambit

The second Rekke/Vargas mystery.

Claire Lidman died fourteen years ago. So why does she appear in the background of a recent holiday snap taken in Venice?

Her husband brings the anomaly to Hans Rekke and Micaela Vargas. Initial scepticism gives way to cautious belief, but Rekke is falling apart again and Vargas has her own problems. Her gangster brother is threatening to silence her if she doesn’t get off his case.

Meanwhile, Rekke’s daughter Julia has a new boyfriend she’s determined to keep secret. He sees something in her she can’t see herself, but there are hints of a darker side.

Most troubling of all, Rekke is hearing whispers of a name he hasn’t heard for years. A rival from his youth whose restless evil links all the threads in this incipient case. The pieces are laid and he’s already one move ahead. The name of the game is revenge.

A Home – The World of Carl and Karin Larsson

A book about life at Lilla Hyttnäs in Dalarna, home of Carl and Karin Larsson, in the late 19th century.

A book about life at Lilla Hyttnäs in Dalarna, home of Carl and Karin Larsson, in the late 19th century. Written by Ulrika Ewerman, with photographs by Mira Wickman, translation by Ian Giles, and styling by Elsa Billgren.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

An over-educated, under-employed man struggles to complete his novel and get his life together over the course of one scorching hot Swedish summer in this clever, provocative, and hilarious novel that is already an acclaimed sensation abroad.

Convinced of his own moral and intellectual superiority, the nameless protagonist of this debut novel is also paralyzed by self-consciousness. Yet, inspired by Stephen King’s On Writing, he decides to dedicate four hours a day to work on his own novel over the course of one summer. Only, he must also balance his creative goals with a part-time government job and looking after his girlfriend’s possibly brain-damaged Pomeranian dog.

Too bad he’s uninspired by his job, almost kills the dog, and realizes his novel is slowly morphing into misguided fan fiction about French writer and enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq.

Even when he’s alone, he can’t help but pontificate before an imagined audience, making over-the-top cases for and against all manner of culture war battles, referencing everyone from Spike Lee to Grumpy Cat. He obsesses over identity politics, and veers into dangerous territory as he and his androgynous girlfriend engage in sexual role-play. He’s an emblem of all the follies of our age—happily unaware that in his refusal to be ordinary, he’s become a walking cliché of misguided manhood.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a portrait of a person belatedly coming of age, a blistering takedown of a privileged man who believes he’s a revolutionary, and “a crackling firework display of comic brilliance” (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden).

Nobel: The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes

This is the fascinating story of the path from Alfred Nobel’s youth to the high-stakes drama that enveloped the dynamite king’s last will and testament.

The telegram reaches Sweden on the morning of Friday, 10 December 1896. Sixty-three-year-old Alfred Nobel has passed away quickly and unexpectedly during the night, at his villa  in the Italian city of San Remo. The news makes it into Afton­bladet the same day. ‘Every educated Swede feels sorrow at  the loss of one of their greatest countrymen,’ writes the news-paper, while avoiding the question that will soon be on every-one’s lips: Who will now inherit his riches?

 

NOBEL: The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes is the fascinating story of the path from Alfred Nobel’s youth to the high-stakes drama that enveloped the dynamite king’s last will and testament. Set against the backdrop of cities such as St Petersburg, Hamburg and Paris, and framed by family quarrels, heartbreak, successes and betrayals, NOBEL is also a captivating account of nineteenthcentury Europe that explores its political currents, literary treasures and scienti?c genius. This is a story about breaking boundaries.

The awardwinning author, journalist and member of the Swedish Academy, Ingrid Carlberg, has combed through archives in multiple countries, unearthing hitherto unknown sources that cast new light on the man who dreamed of doing good for humanity. She combines the researcher’s scholarly rigour with the readability and verve of a narrative journalist. In NOBEL, she has written the first cohesive, comprehensive work to tell the story of Alfred Nobel and the background to the Nobel prizes.

Cookies & Crumbs: Chunky, Chewy, Gooey Cookies for Every Mood

Some like ‘em gooey and chewy, others chunky and crunchy, but everybody loves cookies.

Whether it’s classics like Milk Choc Chip, Peanut Butter and Chunky Double Choc, or new favourites – think Coffee and Cardamom or Melt-in-the-middle S’mores – you’ll find endless options for baking cookies at home with these unforgettable flavour combinations, as well as an array of unbeatable vegan and gluten-free recipes.

In this fun-filled, fresh-out-of-the-oven celebration of everyone’s favourite sweet treat, Kaja Hengstenberg keeps things simple, guides you through the basics and presents delicious, doable recipes. With handy tips scattered throughout, alongside ideas for using up leftovers – ice cream sandwich, anyone? – these are recipes that will show you how to make seriously good cookies every single time.

The Cuckoo

Detective Patrik Hedström and Erica Falck are back exploring threads of the past woven into the present and old sins that have left long shadows.

As a heavy mist rolls into the Swedish coastal town of Fjällbacka, shocking violence shakes the small community to its core. Rolf Stenklo, a famous photographer, is found murdered in his gallery. Two days later, a brutal tragedy on a private island leaves the prestigious Bauer family devastated.

With his boss acting strangely, Detective Patrik Hedström is left to lead the investigation. Tensions rise threatening cracks in the team of officers at Tanumshede police station and pressure mounts as the press demand answers.

In pursuit of inspiration for her next true-crime book, Patrik’s wife Erica Falck leaves behind their three children and travels to Stockholm to research the unsolved decades-old murder of a figure from Rolf’s past. As Erica searches for the truth, she realizes that her mystery is connected to Patrik’s case. These threads from the past are woven into the present and old sins leave behind long shadows.

Hunter in Huskvarna and other stories

A boy goes missing from a Swedish town. A police officer’s mistress cares for his dying wife. A woman becomes obsessed with her psychoanalyst’s daughter. These stories together form a dizzying portrait of love and survival.

Eleven stories spanning raw reality and fairy tale, held together by a sense of longing: for escape from the mundaneness of a prescribed life, for a past which promises an undiscovered future, for a place or a person that fees like home.

The Mountain King

This atmospheric and sinister mystery, tinged with Scandinavian folklore, follows an overachieving female inspector investigating the darkest sides of humanity.

Criminal inspector Leonore Asker seems to have the leading position at Malmö’s Major Crime Division within reach. But things go awry when, in the middle of a high-profile kidnapping case, management relegates her to the so-called Department of Lost Souls—the unit for odd, cold cases banished to the basement of the police station.

Despite the humiliation, Asker is drawn into one of the more peculiar cases. Someone is placing small ominous figures in town and one of them seems to represent the missing woman from the kidnapping case. As Asker’s investigation takes her to abandoned buildings, she reaches out to a local architecture expert and together they explore the sinister recesses of the city and discover that an unusual kind of evil lurks in the shadows.

Albert Bonnier, his life and times

The story of Sweden’s first modern publisher.

A fascinating biography of the founder of the Bonnier publishing house from his arrival in Sweden, following in the footsteps of his brother Adolf, in 1835 to his death in 1900. Besides an in-depth look at nineteenth-century literary Sweden (Albert Bonnier knew everyone and Strindberg does not come off well), the book also addresses the historical context, the constraints faced by Jewish immigrants to Sweden in the early 1800s, changes in the rules on settlement and antisemitism as the century progressed. The issues it raises on immigration, assimilation and freedom of speech remain relevant today.