Novels

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and…no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.

Ever since her darling father’s untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family’s spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father’s ancient armchair. It’s a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.

Over the course of her adventures—or misadventures—this little bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud’s apartment, foil the engagement of her long-ago lover, and dispose of some pesky neighbors. But when the local authorities are called to investigate a dead body found in Maud’s apartment, will Maud finally become a suspect?

Sweeping adventure, breathtaking twists of fate, and immersive worlds based in Norse mythology are woven into this first volume of the Runestone Saga, from the New York Times bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima.

Ever since Ragnarok—the great war between the gods and the forces of chaos--the human realm of the Midlands has become a dangerous place, bereft of magic, where most lead lives of desperation.

Sixteen-year-old Eiric Halvorsen is among the luckier ones. Between fishing, going vikingr, and working his modir’s farm, the family has remained prosperous. But Eiric stands to lose everything when he’s convicted by a rigged jury of murdering his modir and stepfadir. Also at risk is his half-systir, Liv, whose interest in seidr, or magic, has made her a figure of suspicion. Then a powerful jarl steps in: He will pay the blood price if Eiric will lead a mission to the fabled Temple at the Grove—the rich stronghold of the wyrdspinners, the last practitioners of sorcery.

Spellsinger, musician, and runecaster Reginn Eiklund has spent her life traveling from town to town, performing at alehouses all for the benefit of her master, Asger, the fire demon she is desperate to escape. Then after one performance that amazes even Reginn herself, two wyrdspinners in the audience make her an irresistible offer: return with them to the temple to be trained in seidr, forever free of Asger.

Eiric, Liv, and Reginn’s journeys converge in New Jotunheim, the site of the Temple at the Grove, a paradise fueled by magic. They soon realize that a great evil lurks beneath the dazzling surface, and that old betrayals and long-held grudges may fuel another cataclysmic war. It will require every gift and weapon at their command to prevent it.

560 pages. Hardcover.

Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Epic

A vivid retelling of Norse mythology that explores these legendary stories and their significance and influence on the Viking world.

Valhalla and its pantheon of gods and heroes have always fascinated readers, whether it is how these tales illuminate the Viking world or influence cultural touchstones like J.R.R. Tolkien, whose Middle Earth is heavily indebted to Germanic and Norse mythology, as well as Hollywood and comic-culture.

In Tales of Valhalla, the Whittocks have dramatically retold these rich stories and set them in context within the wider Viking world. Including both myths — stories, usually religious, which explain origins, why things are as they are, the nature of the spiritual — and legends — stories which attempt to explain historical events and which may involve historical characters but are told in a non-historical way and that often include supernatural events. Tales from Valhalla is an accessible and lively volume that brings these hallmarks of world literature to a new generation.

288 pages. Paperback.

This lyrical runaway Swedish hit follows a reclusive, elderly couple who cross paths with a pair of twentysomething newcomers in a small mountain town, revealing an unexpected, shared history and the reclamation of a nearly extinct culture.

Meet Máriddja: eccentric, eighty-five years old, and facing a cancer diagnosis. She’s determined to keep the truth about her illness from her husband Biera, while also finding someone who can take care of him once she’s gone.

Meet Kaj: a new transplant to the village, recently engaged to Mimmi, and mourning the death of his mother. One day, when Kaj unexpectedly finds a box of Sámi—the indigenous people of Scandinavia—handicrafts belonging to his mother, he unlocks something he never anticipated, something that will change his life for years to come.

A “brilliant debut” (Aftonbladet Söndag, Sweden) full of humor and heartbreak, The Secrets of Snow movingly grapples with grief, love, and the power of history.

Tina Harnesk is a writer of Sámi descent born in northern Sweden. She works as a library assistant and lives on a mountain outside Arvidsjaur, Sweden, with her husband and children. The Secret of Snow is her debut novel.

Alice Menzies holds an MA in translation theory and practice from University College London, specializing in the Scandinavian languages. She has translated, among other works, And Every Day the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman. She lives in London.

Hardcover. 304 pages.

Join Lars-Henrik Ottoson on an incredible journey. Meet chieftains and presidents, world celebrities and notables, in shackles, shrines and palaces; in the halls of power and the backwoods.

Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed off the edge of the known world. This book traces her footsteps and sheds light on an extraordinary woman and the society in which she lived. This best-selling non-fiction account reads like a novel!

Winter is brutal in Northern Sweden, and famine is ravishing the mountain villages. When both their father and mother die, seven siblings have little choice but to go to the poorhouse. But instead, the eldest, Ante, honors his mother's last wish by leading his siblings south in search of somewhere they will be given not only food and shelter but also a proper upbringing. On their harrowing journey, the intrepid orphans face threats to their lives and moral perils. But they carry themselves with a nobility that transcends social class and a joy that shines through their hardship.

The Children of Frostmo Mountain is a classic of Swedish literature. It is a tale about destiny, virtue, and the values passed on from parents to children.

This is an unabridged English translation, including the author´s forward from the original 1907 edition. By Laura Lugnet.

244 pages. Paperback.

Ages: 8 years to adult.

A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.

384 pages. Paperback.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon — the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as though they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations. Paperback. 377 pages.

A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don't expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they've always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So it's a cruel blow when they hear that their town's ice hockey club might soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in the neighboring town of Hed, take in that fact. But the arrival of a newcomer gives Beartown hockey an opportunity for a comeback.

Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a huge challenge, especially as the town's enmity with Hed grows more acute as the big game approaches.

By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder whether, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you.

Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.

Paperback. 434 pages.

Based in part on Ole Edvart Rølvaag’s own recollections as well of those of his wife’s family who were immigrant homesteaders, Giants in the Earth is the story of a Norwegian family forging a new life amid the harsh, desolate climate of the Dakota Territory.

Gustaf and Anna Klar and their three children dream of starting over when they leave Sweden for New York, finally settling in a cluster of rough-hewn shacks in a deep, wooded ravine on the edge of St. Paul, Minnesota. This haunting story of a real place echoes the larger challenges of immigration in the twentieth century and today.

Vilhelm Moberg's beloved saga of Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina, and their family is a story that has been echoed by millions of other immigrants to this new, and sometimes strange land. Originally written in Swedish more than 60 years ago after months of research in Minnesota, the "Emigrant" books are classics on both sides of the Atlantic. Listed on Sweden's "Books of the Century" list. Softcover, in English.

Vilhelm Moberg's beloved saga of Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina, and their family is a story that has been echoed by millions of other immigrants to this new, and sometimes strange land. Originally written in Swedish more than 60 years ago after months of research in Minnesota, the "Emigrant" books are classics on both sides of the Atlantic. Listed on Sweden's "Books of the Century" list. Softcover, in English. 

Vilhelm Moberg's beloved saga of Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina, and their family is a story that has been echoed by millions of other immigrants to this new, and sometimes strange land. Originally written in Swedish more than 60 years ago after months of research in Minnesota, the "Emigrant" books are classics on both sides of the Atlantic. Listed on Sweden's "Books of the Century" list. Softcover, in English. 

Vilhelm Moberg's beloved saga of Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina, and their family is a story that has been echoed by millions of other immigrants to this new, and sometimes strange land. Originally written in Swedish more than 60 years ago after months of research in Minnesota, the "Emigrant" books are classics on both sides of the Atlantic. Listed on Sweden's "Books of the Century" list. Softcover, in English.

A vivid and illuminating new history—separate fact from fiction, myth from legend—exploring the early Vikings settlements in North America.

Vikings are an enduring subject of fascination. The combination of adventure, mythology, violence, and exploration continues to grip our attention. As a result, for more than a millennium the Vikings have traveled far and wide, not least across the turbulent seas of our minds and imaginations.

The geographical reach of the Norse was extraordinary. For centuries medieval sagas, first recorded in Iceland, claimed that Vikings reached North America around the year 1000. This book explores that claim, separating fact from fiction and myth from mischief, to assess the enduring legacy of this claim in America. The search for “American Vikings” connects a vast range of different areas; from the latest archaeological evidence for their actual settlement in North America to the myth-making of nineteenth-century Scandinavian pioneers in the Midwest; and from ancient adventurers to the political ideologies in the twenty-first century. It is a journey from the high seas of a millennium ago to the swirling waters and dark undercurrents of the online world of today.

261 pages -Paperback