Agency_Fall_2021_Fiction

Cappelen Damm Agency FICTION

Fall 2021 Here you will find some of Norway’s leading contemporary authors.

RIGHTS CATALOGUE

FICTION Cappelen Damm Agency 2021

INGVILD HAUGLAND Rights Director ingvild.haugland@cappelendamm.no Phone +47 414 10 647

ANETTE SLETTBAKK GARPESTAD Rights Manager anette.garpestad@cappelendamm.no Phone +47 984 82 087

MARIUS HJELDNES Rights Manager marius.hjeldnes@cappelendamm.no Phone +47 993 82 950

IDA AMALIE SVENSSON Contracts Manager/Rights Manager ida.svensson@cappelendamm.no Phone +47 977 50 106

Follow us on Facebook and our webpage www.cappelendammagency.no Do you want our newsletters? Send an email to Anette Garpestad.

CAPPELEN DAMM AGENCY Cappelen Damm is Norway's largest publishing house, publishing approximately 1000 titles a year within the genres of fiction, non-fiction, educational books and children's books. Cappelen Damm is owned jointly by Bonnier and Egmont.

Cappelen Damm Agency represents the rights of all of the authors in this catalogue. This includes titles from Flamme forlag, an imprint of Cappelen Damm AS. The Agency is responsible for all foreign book rights, as well as rights for TV, film, radio, anthologies, electronic media etc. We are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the authors and the sales of foreign rights.

FICT IO N

Synne Sun Løes

THE ANGRY PSYCHOLOGIST Idunn Jæger (49) is supposed to rescue other people. But one day, everything falls apart.

One Monday morning, psychologist Idunn Jæger finds a woman standing outside the District Psychiatric Centre (DPC) with a basketful of eggs. Before she has time to think it through, Idunn finds herself joining in as the woman hurls eggs at her workplace. A lot of eggs. It’s marvellous to see them smashing against the glass door.

Idunn is 49 years old and single. She is thoroughly dreading the departure of her son Gustav, who’s about to start military service. She’s enraged by the official one-size-fits-all approach to mental health care. She is angry with Sinnapsykologen 130x205 mm / 416 pages Health Minister, and his zero tolerance goal for suicide, which she views as unrealistic and inhumane. It’s tempting to lie down on the sofa and just give up. But then the police ring at her door. And Freud creeps out of the sofa cushion.

The Angry Psychologist is a satirical novel in which the distance between supposed normality and insanity is wafer-thin.

It´s entertaining to see someone 'loose it' completely.

DAGBLADET ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.

Synne Sun Løes (b. 1975) is based in Oslo. She debuted in 1999 with the book Yoko is alone. For her YA-novel, Eating Flowers for Breakfast (2002), she won the prestigious Brage Prize. She has been awarded Riksmålsprisen and been chosen as a White Raven author.

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Excerpt from The Angry Phychologist:

I stood with the egg carton in one hand and dirt on the knees of my trousers. I took an egg out of the carton. A little white egg. I felt its heft in the palm of my hand. Stroked the cool, smooth shell with my thumb. I smiled at Zoe and Zoe smiled back. With a swift, firm movement, I drew back my arm, then flung it forward as fast as I could. I let go.

The eggs smashed against the door, their yellow yolks sliding across the glass, running down the shiny surface like fresh bird poo. I want to live, I thought as I carried on throwing.

I want to actually live. I want to practice therapy. Not pack people into small, square cardboard boxes and then label the boxes with their diagnoses. I don’t want to send the boxes from pillar to post. Return them with insufficient postage.

No. If I’d wanted a job as a package-packer or a post-person, I’d have got myself one. It wouldn’t have been especially demanding. But I wanted to be a psychologist. I am a psychologist.

No-one is going to take the conversations away from me. The patients. The time. The wonder. The humanity. The encounter.

The authentic and vulnerable. And that’s why I must throw these eggs. Crush them. Kill them.

FICT IO N

Selma Lønning Aarø

RIGHT TO PRIVACY An author wakes up in hospital.

Something dramatic has happened – she just can’t quite remember what.

What she can recall, however, is what happened before.

Privatlivets fred 130x205 mm / 346 pages

When the author moves to Fredrikstad from Oslo with her family, she finds new friends, a new life and what she hopes will be the starting-point for a new novel.

Her new girlfriend X has given her permission to write whatever she wants about what they describe as a major issue that has marked X’s life. It looks set to be the author’s best novel ever, but X gradually becomes increasingly unstable and intimidating, and the author realises that her entire writing project is in jeopardy. The same goes for her artistic freedom, her finances, her relationship to her publisher and colleagues – not to mention the relationships in her own family. What can an author allow herself, and who really owns a story?

Selma Lønning Aarø’s new novel is funny, sometimes frightening and unusually topical. A continuation of a strong feminist tradition, it also comments on the debate about reality literature.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.

NORLA SELECTED TITLE AUTUMN 2021

Selma Lønning Aarø (b. 1972) made her debut in 1995 with The Final story. She has been a newspaper columnist for Dagbladet and Klassekampen for a number of years. Her novel, I'm Coming, was translated into several languages. Her Lying Face is praised by critics and readers. Right to Privacy is her latest novel.

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Excerpt from Right to Privacy

To my surprise, the pain X spoke of made the same holes in me as Mum’s pain once had. I’d tried to fill them in, these holes. I’d filled them in with travel and childbirth, with fun and frivolity, but as X spoke, each of these holes seemed to open up again, as if a plaster had been ripped off a wound.

As X spoke, I was reduced to the same powerlessness I had experienced as a child. I felt the same anger I had felt as a child. X, who could fix pretty much anything, X, who went with the flow and did exactly what she felt like all the time, could not fix this. She was powerless and I didn’t want X to be powerless, just as I hadn’t wanted Mum to be either when I was younger. If I was meant to write anything at all, this was it. It was a peculiar feeling and when I left X that evening, I did the only thing I could do.

I went home across the bridge with the ever-present wind in my hair. My head grew cold and clear. I crept into my house and up the stairs and started to write.

FICT IO N

Iram Haq

UNLOVED Sofia is from Oslo, the child of Pakistani parents. She often has too little money and spends too much time on Tinder.

Sofia is awarded a grant to make photographic art but suspects she only got it because she’s brown.

When her father falls seriously ill, she starts to take pictures of him. And when an old flame comes to town, Sofia’s yearning for love intensifies. A passionate affair ensues.

Unloved is driven by painful comedy and characters with an instinct for survival.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.

Uelsket 130x205 mm / 224 pages

Iram Haq (b. 1976) has studied at Westerdal's School of Communication and works as an actress and director.

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Excerpt from Unloved

My name is Safia, but I’ve Norwegianized it to Sofia. I’m 39 years old. I work as a photographer but also take random jobs here and there. Otherwise, I have a father, a mother and a cousin who I haven’t talked to in years. They’re originally from India, but in a nutshell: they were Pakistanis before they became Bangladeshis and then they became “new” Norwegians. I live in an area where you only see white people except at 7-Eleven and the Dollar General – but of course I don’t shop there. I’d rather walk an extra mile to a store where it’s too busy for anyone to ask if I know Urdu, like samosas, if I’m married to a white man or if I happen to come from the same place as them. Still single. Looking for a boyfriend. So let me know if you know a nice, friendly guy who I’d get along with. Preferably handsome, young, with good genes and who will love me forever. Know anyone?

FICT IO N

Lars Saabye Christensen

ECHOES OF THE CITY Book 4: Jesper and Trude

The fourth volume of Echoes of the City centres on Jesper Kristoffersen and Trude Hagen, whose destinies are closely bound to the city and the streets they live on, as well as Oslo’s other inhabitants.

Fagerborg and the world are shrinking, the pace of life has stepped up a notch: it is the 1980s and a new generation is taking over, a generation with the world at its feet. The tramlines bind the city together but also lead to places that take people out of the city – whether to Hurdal, Sweden or Lake Como.

Regardless of how different their dreams may be, their struggles place them at odds with the city and the world.

Byens spor – Jesper og Trude 130x205 mm / 464 pages

Lars Saabye Christensen (b. 1953) has published a number of novels, poetry and short story collections since his literary debut in 1976 with The Story of Gly. His breakthrough came with Beatles (1984), one of the greatest literary sales successes in Norway that, over the years, new generations continue to hold close to their hearts. He received the Nordic Council Literature Prize for The Half Brother in 2001.

Saabye Christensen has also received the Riverton Prize, the Critics' Prize, the Brage Prize, the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, the Dobloug Prize and the Norwegian Reader's Prize. He has been published in 36 countries.

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ECHOES OF THE CITY I: Book 1: Ewald and Maj

ECHOES OF THE CITY II: Book 2: Maj

ECHOES OF THE CITY III: Book 3: The Shadow Book

272 60 0 COPI ES SOLD I N NORWAY

‘Lars Saabye Christensen allows himself digressions and diversions in the last novel in his Oslo trilogy Echoes of the City. This sets the three-volume work slightly off-kilter. Just what it takes to make the trilogy necessary.

Yes, necessary.’

NRK ‘Lars Saabye Christensen writes warming literature of reminiscence, full of linguistic treats.’

AFTENPOSTEN ‘It is gripping, in some passages glittering. And only a reader with a heart of steel could fail to be deeply moved…’

DAGBLADET

Rights sold to: Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), Denmark (Grif), Germany (BTB Luchterhand), Poland (Literackie), Tunisia (Societe dar Meskeliani), UK (MacLehose Press)

FICT IO N

Lars Saabye Christensen

A RANDOM BUREAUCRAT Gordon Mo works in the Ministry of Agriculture and is the very model of a grey bureaucrat. But inside he’s seething and now and then he has to relieve the pressure: that’s when he checks into a hotel and lets off a bit of steam from the pressure cooker. This works fine until one day at work when a cake is served up in his honour: that day, unfortunately, the pressure becomes too much for Gordon Mo. To cut a long story short, by the next day he no longer works at the ministry. But unlike many 60-year-old bureaucrats who lose their jobs, Gordon Mo is not superfluous: a shy old man who’s seething inside needs something.

En tilfeldig nordmann 130x205 mm / 304 pages

This is the starting point for Gordon Mo’s journey, which begins at an institution outside Baltimore that is

supposed to get him back on his feet again. There he encounters the night watchman, Only Me, who will turn out to play a decisive role in the novel. What’s more, there’s a certain Frans Meek in the background who’s pulling the strings and ensuring that things continue to boil over here and there.

A Random Bureaucrat takes the pulse of our age with stinging wit and warmth.

‘For this is a contemporary novel, darn it! And as such it is equally absurd, smart, funny, provoking and elegantly written.’

DAGBLADET –  ‘The book is full of linguistic energy, smart turns of phrase and just the right number of eccentric individuals, just like you would expect from this author. … I could just keep on quoting for a long time, as this book is full of little literary pearls. But rather, I'll just say: Read the book!’

VG 

Rights sold to: Denmark (Grif)

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FICT IO N

Lars Saabye Christensen

THE MIDDLE MAN The Middle Man is a dark and humorous satire taking place in the small American town called Karmack. After a series of accidents and deaths, the small town’s own "commission" – consisting of a sheriff, a doctor and a priest – decides to hire a "middle man". A person in charge of informing family and relatives when an accident occurs.

Frank Farrelli is a quiet and sane guy who is seemingly perfect for the job.

He undertakes his new duties with enthusiasm and quickly becomes the town’s messenger for bad news. But the pressure from his new job as well as a new thriving romantic connection overwhelms Frank. To ease the burden, he calls in a ‘service’ that ends in a murder, and Frank finds himself stuck in a vicious circle where he is not only the guy who brings bad news, but also the one making them.

Mellommannen 130x205 mm / 176 pages

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FICT IO N

Vigdis Hjorth

IS MOTHER DEAD The protagonist of Is Mother Dead is an acclaimed artist, Johanna, who has spent three decades in the US with her husband and child. When her husband dies, she returns to Norway, where she is invited to put on a major retrospective.

What remains of the life she left behind in Norway several decades ago? What does she expect to find when she returns? How will she manage to build a bridge between past and present? We follow Johanna’s self-examination as well as her attempts to understand and come closer to her mother.

N O M I N AT ED TO T H E N O R D I C CO U N C I L S L I T T ER AT U R E Er mor død 130x205 mm / 368 pages

In this novel, Vigdis Hjorth digs deeper into the mother-daughter issue, once again writing compellingly and profoundly about a timeless theme.

P R IZ E 2021

‘Vigdis Hjorth's Is Mother Dead is a brooding and searching novel that proves why she is among our very best. The book resembles a thriller; the crescendo is edge-of-your-seat literature. Hjorth is an expert in plotting and linguistic rhythm. Long sections are broken up by pages with plenty of air and low-key reflections, several of which you will return to and read again and again.’

DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV ‘Vigdis Hjorth is back at her best, with a raw and painful book.

Brave and uncompromising.’

DAGSAVISEN FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILABLE Vigdis Hjorth (b. 1959) has made an exciting literary career and has written many popular books for both children and adults. Today she is an awardwinning author and one of Norway's most interesting, contemporary writers. She has won a number of prizes and awards, amongst them: The Gyldendal Prize in 2011, the Critics Award in 2012, The Honorary Brage Award and the Amalie Skram Award in 2014, The Aschehoug Award in 2015 and the Booksellers Prize in 2016.

Rights sold to: Croatia (Naklada Ljevak), Denmark (Turbine), Finland (Schildts & Söderströms), Greece (Potamos) Sweden (Natur & Kultur), Turkey (Siren Yayinlari), United Kingdom (Verso), United States (Verso Books), Italy (Fazi Editore), Russia (EKSMO Publishing House), Spain (Nórdica Libros), Hungary (Polar Egyesület), Norway (Den Nationale Scene)

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FICT IO N

Vigdis Hjorth

WILL AND TESTAMENT A classic story of inheritance, centred on two summer cabins on Hvaler.

Two children have been looking after the place and their parents for many years.

They are due to inherit the cabins. But there are two other children, who have partly broken away from the family. How do they fit into the inheritance dispute?

During the inheritance discussions another story emerges which brings violent forces into play. It's all about family history.

Will and Testament is a powerful novel, which created great debate when it was first published in 2016.

WINNER OF THE NORWEGIAN BOOK­SELLERS AWARD AND THE NORWEGIAN CRITICS AWARD IN 2016.

Arv og miljø 130x205 mm / 352 pages

WINNER OF THE NORWEGIAN CRITICS PRIZE 2016.

NOMINATED TO THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2019.

NOMINATED TO THE NORDIC COUNCILS LITERATURE PRIZE 2016.

FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.

Rights sold to: Azerbaijan (Qanun Publishing House), Bulgaria (Aviana), Croatia (Ljevak), Denmark (Turbine), Estonia (Eesti Raamat), Faroe Islands (Sprotin Forlag), Finland (Schildts & Söderströms), France (Actes Sud), Germany (Osburg Verlag), Hungary (Polar Egyesület), Italy (Fazi Editore), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Netherlands (Ambo Anthos), Norway (Den Nationale Scene), Poland, Russia (EKSMO), Spain (Nórdica Libros), Sweden (Natur & Kultur), Turkey (Siren Yayinlari), United Kingdom (Verso Books), United States (Verso Books), Brazil (Harper Collins), Egypt (Al-Karma), Greece (Habibbutz Publishers), Portugal (Porto Editora), Romania (Grupul Editorial Art), Serbia (STRIK Publishing House), South Korea (GU-FIC)

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FICT IO N

Roy Jacobsen

ONLY A MOTHER Return to Barrøy!

After a long journey through Norway, Ingrid has finally returned to Barrøy. Life has become more stable, but the war still casts its long shadows across the country.

Former collaborators face cold shoulders or obscured retaliation. Others simply wish to leave the painful years in the past.

Bare en mor 130x205 mm

One day a boy arrives on the island.

Shortly thereafter, his father disappears.

Ingrid assumes responsibility for the boy, and adopts him. As such, Mathias becomes a central part of the Barrøy community, together with Kaja, Ingrid’s daughter by birth. Life on the island is demanding, but the letters from friends in Oslo and Trondheim tell of a Norwegian society undergoing dramatic changes. Which stories should Ingrid keep to herself, and which ones should she bring to light?

What kind of future is she imagining?

Only A Mother is the fourth book in a series of novels that have delighted readers in Norway and abroad. It’s a novel about being a parent, being a part of a community, and about living under conditions that require hard labour. It is also a story about parts of our near past that have stayed in the dark. And it’s about an unusual woman, who has to navigate painful experiences in a rough, weather-beaten, and diverse society on the coast of Northern Norway.

‘Roy Jacobsen has added a new chapter to his masterpiece …’

NETTAVISEN ‘It is a pure pleasure to read Roy Jacobsen’s novel Only a Mother. …keeps the reader captivated from the first to the last sentence.’

DAGBLADET ‘… a beautiful and intense novel. …poetic, virtuoso, warm …No one describes the coastal and cultural history of the Helgeland coast as Roy Jacobsen.’

VG Rights sold to: Czech Republic (Pistorins & Olsanská), Denmark (Gyldendal), Estonia (Eesti Raamat), France (Editions Gallimard), Germany (C.H. Beck Verlag), Poland (Wydawnictwo Poznanskie), Sweden (Norstedts), UK (MacLehose Press), Italy (Iperborea S.r.l.), Iceland (Forlagið), Finland (Sitruuna kustannus Oy)

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Photo: Maja Hattvang

Roy Jacobsen (b. 1954) is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary authors in Norway, and has since his sensational debut in 1982, with the short story collection Prison Life, which won him the prestigious Tarjei Vesaas’ Debutant Prize, developed into an original and daring author with a special interest in the underlying psychological interplay in human relationships. He has been nominated three times for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and twice for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. In 2017 he was shortlisted for both the Man Booker International Prize, as the first Norwegian author ever, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for The Unseen.

In 2013 Jacobsen’s authorship reached a new milestone with the publication of The Unseen, book one in his now completed Barrøy trilogy. It is set in the first half of the 20th century on an island on the North-Western coast of Norway, and is a monument over human courage and life-saving practical and social knowledge. White Shadow followed in 2015, and The Eyes of Rigel was published in 2017. The Barrøy trilogy became an immediate critically acclaimed sales success, it has been translated into 28 languages, and has sold nearly 500.000 copies in Norway alone. In total, Jacobsen has been translated into 36 languages.

FICT IO N

Roy Jacobsen

THE UNSEEN This novel is set in the first half of the 20th Century on the island Barrøy. The island is small, there is only space for Ingrid’s family. Life on the island is difficult and the Barrøy family is poor, but certainly not without guts and skills. They live off of their small land, they have some livestock, they fish in the sea and make use of whatever the waves wash ashore.

De usynlige 130x205 mm / 256 pages

The dramatic ocean and the seasonal changes make for a plot in itself. Roy’s descriptions of man and nature are breath taking. The family’s love for their environment is brilliantly communicated.

A life somewhere else is unthinkable to them. This is their paradise on Earth.

The Barrøy family is depicted with great wisdom, sensitivity and narrative skill.

Roy turns their practical knowledge into little gems of stories with metaphorical and existential depth.

FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AVAILABLE FOR ALL THREE BOOKS. RIGHTS SOLD TO 31 TERRITORIES. SHORTLISTED TO THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE. SHORTLISTED TO THE DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE PRIZE.

Rights sold to: Azerbaijan (Qanun Publishing House), Bulgaria (Aviana), Canada (Biblioasis), China (Writers Publishing House), Czech Republic (Pistorius & Olšanská), Denmark (Rosinante & Co), Estonia (Eesti Raamat), Faroe Islands (Sprotin Forlag), Finland (Sitruuna kustannus Oy), France (Éditions Gallimard), Germany (C. H. Beck), Greece, Hungary (Scolar Kiado), Iceland (Forlagið), Israel (Keter Books), Italy (Iperborea), Lithuania (Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House), Macedonia (Shkupi), Netherlands (Uitgeverij De Bezige Bij), Poland (Wydawnictwo Poznanskie sp. z o.o.), Portugal (Relógio D’Água Editores), Republic Of Korea (Fiftyone K. Inc. Zhan publishing), Slovenia (VBZ), Spain (Alianza Editorial, S.A.), Sweden (Norstedts), Syrian Arab Republic (Mamdouh), Turkey (Yapi Kredi Kültür Sanat Yay. Ticaret ve Sanayi A.S.), United Kingdom (MacLehose Press), Norway (Hålogoland Teater), Russia (Izdatelstvo Albus Korvus)

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Reviews for The Unseen: ‘… as blunt as it is subtle and is ­easily among the best books I have ever read. … There is a unique universality about The Unseen. Jacobsen's prose is beautiful, clean, poised and plain speaking, but there are interludes of Shakespearean grandeur in the dazzling descriptions of storms.’

THE IRISH TIMES Reviews for White Ocean: ‘He is the master of the coastal folk, Roy Jacobsen, a virtuoso, poetic portrayer of coastal culture – with its fish, boat crews and practical ­activities. … The novel is safe in the hands of a novelist who commands a wonderfully beautiful language and has a poetic power. The dialogue and the powerful expressions in local dialect create authenticity. The chapters and scene after scene are rounded off with elegance and finesse.

Roy Jacobsen masters the short format. A joy for heart and soul.’

VG  ‘Roy Jacobsen is a true storyteller; with his capacity to give the reader both overview and detail in the same image – without losing perspective. … In White Ocean, life is portrayed with both beauty and brutality.’

BERGENS TIDENDE  Reviews for The Eyes of Rigel: ‘Roy Jacobsen’s third novel about Ingrid Barrøy is a beautiful, poetic and at times brutal story. The entire little but great novel gives a tantalizing picture of life after the Great War, life after the catastrophe, life after love. Read it yourself, this exceptionally beautiful voyage from the ocean to the wooded inlands and back, amongst people with visible and invisible scars, war within peace.’

VG  ‘Jacobsen’s images of a society in rapid development, is as sharp and ­detailed as his pictures of nature, woods, bird song and the absence of the ocean – in what becomes Ingrid Barrøy´s peculiar journey. This book is a highlight!’

NRK ‘When I close the book I think – like I always do with Jacobsen; Damned, how good he is!’

DAGBLADET

FICT IO N

Beate Grimsrud

I SUGGEST WE WAKE UP

WINNER OF THE BRAGE PRIZE 2020

A white envelope flies through the air and lands in Vilde Berg's letterbox.

She is at a midpoint in her life, and has everything she needs. But the envelope contains a message that will turn her life upside down – she is seriously ill.

Exuberant and curious, Vilde has always asked questions about herself and the world, and she has never taken the answers to these questions lightly. When your own life – something you take so for granted – can come to an end, what questions do you ask then?

Jeg foreslår at vi våkner 130x205 mm

Time now seems both in short s­ upply and drawn out – how long will she have to wait for answers, to hope and to recover? Does she have to hurry and use her time as best she can?

Parallel to Vilde's story about wanting to live, are all the stories about Vilde's childhood in the fabled Dovre mountains, where she stole a golden pen from grandfather. From this pen spring tales of a wistful and playful rat longing to be noticed and loved by the fox with the beautiful tail.

I Suggest We Wake Up is a new milestone in Beate Grimsrud's career, trembling with raw nerve and wild hopefulness, combined with the author's stubborn energy and distinct sense of humor.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE

Beate Grimsrud (1963–2020) was a creative and versatile writer. She made her début with the short story ­collection There are limits to what I do not understand in 1990, and in 1998 she was nominated for the Nordic Council Literary Award for her novel Sneaking past an axe. Her international break-through came in 2010 with the novel A Fool Free. It earned her the Norwegian Critics' Prize 2010, the Swedish Radio's Listeners' Award 2010, and a nomination by both Norway and Sweden to the Nordic Council's Literature Prize 2010.

Rights sold to: Denmark (Barzer & Co.), Norway (Det norske teatret), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Förlag)

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Rewiews for I suggest we wake up: ‘Beate Grimsrud’s new novel I Suggest We Wake Up is one of the most poignant, strangest and entertaining Norwegian books I’ve read in a very, very long time. … a deeply original and meaningful reading experience that you will surely remember for a long time.’

VERDENS GANG (NORWAY) •••••• ‘A bold and humorous novel full of adventure and imagination. … I am a fan of Beate Grimsrud’s books. Of her imagination, of her thinking, of her humor, which makes the reader wonder and think in new ways. … It leaves me mentally out of breath. But it’s worth it. … Grimsrud puts into words Vilde’s feelings and reactions through unique images that makes it possible for the reader to live through this heartbreaking story.’

ADRESSEAVISEN (NORWAY) •••••• ‘Beate Grimsrud invites you into a linguistic roller coaster ride that makes you scream with joy and horror. Buckle up and read!’

DAGBLADET (NORWAY) •••••• ‘Beate Grimsrud’s new novel is like water for a thirsty throat.’

DAGENS NYHETER (SWEDEN) ‘Beate Grimsrud has written her best novel to date.’

SYDSVENSKA DAGBLADET (SWEDEN) ‘I Suggest We Wake Up is an anxiety-ridden, fun, and inviting read, full of airy light and dark depths.’

VÄSTERBOTTENS-KURIEN (SWEDEN) ‘Grimsrud writes more beautifully than ever.’

GÖTEBORGS-POSTEN (SWEDEN)

FICT IO N

Ida Fjeldbraaten

WOLVERINE The main character in the novel Wolverine lives in an institution, working as a cleaner at the city zoo. She has an underdeveloped gaze at the world around her. She is closer to her basic instincts and drives than most of us, and she has to fight herself to restrain the fury and forcefulness raging inside of her.

In the Nordic nature area of the zoo, we meet the wolverine. The wolverine is among the most skilled survivors of the animal kingdom, but trapped as the weakest of his pack, the beast within him is cowed.

Jerv 130x205 mm / 128 pages

Wolverine is a novel about the animal in humans and the human in animals.

The novel examines zoos as a luxury.

What happens in a place like this when the society beyond its walls breaks down? Wolverine is a brutal, tender and compelling tale of bodily fluids, jaws, teeth, mud and bites; about nature, culture and about powers that reside in all of us – and can, perhaps, never be reined in.

NOMINATED TO THE P2-LISTENERS NOVELPRIZE 2020 AWARDED THE HALVORSEN TRUST PRIZE 2020 ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE ‘Ida Fjeldbraaten’s Wolverine is an unusually interesting debut.’

KLASSEKAMPEN ‘… The author has managed the feat of portioning out the disturbing elements, so that the reader feels mostly like a microwave oven, where the terror heats up from the inside.’

DAG OG TID Ida Fjeldbraaten (b. 1984) is the Creative Director of the Hausmann marketing bureau, and a marketing director of the small publisher Teori & praksis. Wolverine is her literary debut.

Rights sold to: Germany (Verlag Die Brotsuppe)

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FICT IO N

Jonas Sundquist

I THINK YOU’D LIKE ULRIK Theodor drifts between seminars and parties, drinks IPA and lives in a dingy bed-sit in Oslo. No one knows he is gay. When he meets Ulrik, he finds the courage to do things he has previously shied away from. It is the start of a double life.

I Think You’d Like Ulrik is a rich, entertaining novel of youthful rebellion, about parties, destruction, sex, loneliness and the sense of kinship that can spring up between people who have just turned twenty and left home.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE

Jeg tror du hadde likt Ulrik 130x205 mm / 320 pages

Jonas Sundquist was born in 1992 and lives in Oslo. This is his first novel.

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FICT IO N

Per Knutsen

THE NECK WILL NOT BEND Teo has a difficult home life. He loves his mother but loathes his stepfather.

Even in the face of experiences that no child should have to cope with, Teo shows defiance and courage. Along the transgressive road to teenage life, he finds able helpers in unexpected places.

The Neck Will Not Bend is an intense, raw and powerful novel that surprises the reader by subverting established power relations and sympathies. There is so much at stake in this story – and Teo’s defiance is enough to spark a flame in even the most Covid-weary mind.

Nakken vil ikke bøye seg 130x205 mm / 240 pages

Per Knutsen (b. 1951) is a writer that publishes books in wide variety of genres, ranging from books for children and young adults to plays, thrillers and novels. In his writing you find a keen eye for nuances of life.

Honesty, love, lie, lust and the ability to be true to oneself are important elements in his authorship.

In 2017 he was awarded Havmanprisen - the award for best northern Norwegian writing, for his novel Hugo's Brother, a novel he has received great praise for.

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FICT IO N

Gro Dahle

TWELVE LIGHT YEARS Vera is one of 12 people selected to take part in China’s space programme. Only after extensive training and instruction does it become clear that 10 of them will be leaving Earth for good. They are being sent to the exoplanet, Luytens B, in the Canis Minor constellation to seek out life there and establish a space station. Luytens B is 12.36 light years away and is said to be a Super Earth.

On her way to the planet, Vera becomes pregnant. She and the captain of the spaceship, Edvard, have followed the programme that was laid out for them: they will become a family.

Twelve Light Years is an astonishing novel – unreal yet utterly natural.

Tolv lysår 130x205 mm

Gro Dahle (b. 1962) is a prize winning author, writing for both children and adults. As a children's book writer she is known for her poetic books on themes that are often given little attention. She has also published novels and short stories.

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Emely Benedicte Kahrs

YOU DON’T REMEMBER THIS Four women in a house in the forest. Three of them have recently gone through breakups, two have brought their children with them. Over a few short summer weeks, they share food and wine, as well as their experiences and frustrations with men and coupledom. And they boil eggs. Nelly tends her little girl lovingly, but her gaze also betrays guilt, shame and a hope that one day the girl will understand why her mother left her father.

Du husker ikke dette 130x205 mm / 192 pages

The book is painful and rich in detail, with fine, powerful tales of the women’s shared summer, described with tenderness and humour. At the core of the novel is the delicately nuanced, heart-rending tale of a mother who is afraid of losing a daughter.

Emely Bendicte Kahrs (b. 1975) was born in Bergen and lives in Oslo.

Gallop for the Black Horse was her debut.

Kaja Kvernbakken

BACKLIT When photographer Elly loses her sight in an accident, her life is turned upside down. She can no longer see any silver linings. This becomes a source of conflict not only with her life partner but also with the representative of the Association for Blind People, who is supposed to be teaching her how to manage by herself.

Are people with disabilities allowed to be ungrateful?

Can they be mean and sullen because they have been robbed of something that the rest of us take for granted?

Motlys 130x205 mm / 144 pages

Kaja Kvernbakken (b. 1982) was born in Bergen. Kvernbakken has worked as an editor and translator, is a former member of the editorial team of Utflukt magazine, and studied creative writing in Bø. She lives in Oslo. The Smell of Chlorine was her fiction debut.

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Stina Vogt

BUT HOW CAN I CRY WHEN THE STREETS ARE ABLAZE WITH FLOWERS The digital garden on the screen is luminous; improbable plants are crossbred. A daughter hits rock bottom after her mother’s death. She digs deep into the soil of her childhood garden.

Her memory is leaky as a sieve.

But How Can I Cry when the Streets are Ablaze with Flowers is a poetic tale of three generations of women living under the same roof, where the bonds are strong and childhood is free.

Men hvordan skal jeg gråte når det blomstrer så voldsomt langs veiene?

130x205 mm / 128 pages

Stina Vogt (b. 1984) is from Oslo and has a Master’s degree in Literary Composition from Gothenburg.

This is her debut.

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Rannveig Leite Molven

THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS On an island at the mouth of the fjord lies a house where Edith lives with her daughters, Agnes and Cecile. They have lost a father and a twin sister. The house contains a telephone exchange and a telegraph, which Edith operates on behalf of the whole island community. The German Gestapo officer, Wilhelm, stops by regularly to interrogate Edith about who they call and when. At the same time, a young man is in hiding from the Nazis as he waits for a boat to arrive at the island.

The Beautiful Days is a beautiful, poetic novel based on potent material, with an unbroken thread of tension quivering through the entire story.

De vakre dagene

Rannveig Leite Molven (b. 1974) studied at The Academy for Creative Writing in Bergen.

She has written three novels.

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Victoria Durnak

EVELYN’S INBOX On her 50th birthday Evelyn discovers that her inbox has been posted online as a searchable archive. This will result in a series of happenings; her husband demands a divorce, her daughter refuses to talk to her, she gets fired, and ends up moving to a cottage in the mountains to find some piece. But one day, Astrid turns up.

Evelyn’s Inbox is an uncomfortable story about everything the internet knows about us. With humour and a sharp glance at the present time, Durnak writes a portrait of a woman who loses everything as her inbox gets exposed on the internet.

Evelyns innboks 130x205 mm / 136 pages

Victoria Durnak (b. 1989) debuted in 2010 with the poetry collection Stockholm sier. She has since released several poetry collections and novels.

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Heidi Furre

THE POWER ‘Quite often I can tell by just looking at a person. I don't know exactly how I can tell, it´s something fleeting. It lives in the face. It´s in the skin, around the mouth, in the eyes. Some women carry pain in their face. It´s hard to get a grip on it, it easily slips away. It is despite of youth, despite of beauty. I have seen it in others since I was a child, before I could tell what it was. I have seen it in children. I have seen it in old women. Some days I have seen it in myself.

In my pores, the tone of my skin, the lines.

If I am not careful it comes pouring out.’

Makta 130x205 mm / 144 pages

Liv is a nurse. She takes good care of herself and others. She is a normal person hiding a normal secret. One night, many years ago, she was raped. By a man she willingly followed home. The Power is a novel about power, but also a book about having the power. The Power to move on.

‘The Power is a concrete story about Liv’s experiences, and a story about how many women feel every time they step out of the bus on their way home late at night, having to walk the last stretch alone in the dark.’

MORGENBLADET ‘On point about trauma relief … In Heidi Furre’s hard-hitting novel The Power, a mother tries to take back control over her own life. … What has happened cannot be undone. Nor will this borderline rape end up in court. But Heidi Furre has found another form of relief through her accurate formulations.

Formulations that will hit home with the reader.’

NRK NORL A SELECTED TITLE AU T U M N 2021 Heidi Furre (b. 1986) made her debut 2013 with the novel The Paris Syndrome, to critical acclaim. She has since written two more novels. In addition to her writing, Heidi spends the majority of her time working as a photographer.

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Excerpt from The Power

I wrote the letter. Sat in the changing room at the gym, wanting to be on neutral ground. It was hard to find the words; I wasn’t sure if I was expressing myself correctly. At first I wrote non-consensual sex, it was okay to write that. But it didn’t seem right, because it wasn’t sex. If sex is a mutual act, it wasn’t sex. I wrote sexualised violence, I wrote assault, I wrote sexual trauma, but nothing seemed right. There was too little violence or too little sex. Deep down I knew which word to use, I just couldn’t bring myself to write it. Couldn’t face that word, that fucking lousy word. Rape. I wrote rape.

FL A M M E FO RL AG

Marte Qvenild

THE SUMMER PARTY Marte Qvenlid´s debut novel The Summer Party starts with the main character Sylvi having a sudden feeling of vertigo and having to sit down. She is waiting for her son, daughter in law and grandson, and everything must be perfect. Two types of wheat bread, the favourite pie of the grandson and so on. But Sylvi is no longer as young and agile as before. Her health is falling apart, the same way that her farm is falling apart because the planet has started falling apart. And soon we will find that the small family arriving is also falling apart.

The Summer Party is a novel about losing those who are your closest, and the right to keep in control. In control over you own life, the life of others and the life of the planet.

Sommerfesten 130x205 mm / 208 pages

‘Marte Qvenild gives us a sharp and focused portrait of the little life that we all know is actually the grand one. … Qvenild is not in a hurry, even though she could have been an ‘inpatient novel debutant’, she dwells long enough on situations for us to really feel them in our bones.’

DAG OG TID ‘This summer’s finest surprise … Marte Qvenild has written a thoroughly beautiful and intelligent novel that picks at painful life experiences. Read it slowly on a cliff, followed by a dip in the sea.’

DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV

Marte Qvenild (b. 1977) debuted in 2021 with the novel The Summer Party, a novel that has received great reviews and was awarded «Summer Book of the Year» by Dagens Nærlingsliv.

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Excerpt from The Summer Party

The field is starting to turn yellow. Everything is aglow. She leans against her cane and feels the dizziness coming back.

She stops to let Jørgen pass by, but he puts his hand in hers.

“Hi, you,” she says.

His hand feels small and cold, like she’s holding hands with a child who seems much younger than he really is. […]

“Grandma, are you sure I don’t have to leave before the summer party?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because… nevermind, just forget it.”

“I think you can decide since you’re almost ten years old,” she says.

They keep walking, holding hands. He’s almost as tall as her now. She wants to pat him on the back and say, “My dear, dear, Jørgen,” but she’s afraid of scaring him away. She gently squeezes his cold little hand, and he squeezes back.

FL A M M E FO RL AG

Linn Strømsborg

NEVER, EVER, EVER «I am 35 years old. I do not want children.

It’s not something I talk to other people about. It is something that I am ashamed of, a topic I avoid; take long verbal detours around. When my friends talk about having kids, I change the topic. I do not want to be to certain or unbending, because I might suddenly wake up one day and find that I have become one of them, an ordinary woman in her thirthies wanting to get pregnant, wanting a family, wanting to expand my life, my body and my heart to make room for more than myself. You are allowed to change your mind.»

The main character in Linn Strømsborg´s novel Never, ever, ever has never wanted children. She has been living with Philip for eight years, and they have agreed to not have children – up until now.

Aldri, aldri, aldri Because maybe Philip might want to 130x205 mm / 224 pages become a dad after all? And while her two best friends are expecting their first child, and her mother is constantly nagging about grandchildren, and her everyday life is full of parents with toddlers and births and the struggle of others to have enough time for it all, she is firm in her life and her choice about not having children.

Never, ever, ever is a novel about why we have children, and why we do not have children. It is the story about choosing something other than what is expected of you, but at the same time wanting a normal life.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE ‘The story is elegantly composed, at times cinematic. Strømsborg has written rare and energized prose about a timely and somewhat taboo topic.’

VG  Linn Strømsborg (b. 1986) made her debut 2009 with the novel Roskilde, the story of a group of young people at a music festival, and followed up with the chap book The Øya Festival in the same year. She has since written two novels about the main character Eva; Furuset in 2012 and You're not gonna die in 2016.

She is one of the most interesting young voices in contemporary Norwegian fiction today.

Rights sold to: Denmark (Turbine), Serbia (Cigoja Stampa), Germany (DuMont)

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Lotta Elstad

I REFUSE TO THINK I Refuse to Think has much of the same sharp and smart humour as Lotta Elstad's earlier books.

We meet Hedda Møller after a traumatic plane landing and hazardous journey back to Oslo, through a Europe in crisis, on buses and trains, dirty hostel rooms and a one-night stand in Berlin that will not stop sending her messages in CAPS LOCK. Back home she discovers that she is unwantedly pregnant. That should be an easily solved problem. It´s not.

I Refuse to Think is a dark, feministic contemporary comedy about p ­ olitics, love – and an abyss that is getting ­dangerously closer.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE ‘A feminist direct hit!’

STAVANGER AFTENBLAD 

Jeg nekter å tenke 130x205 mm / 240 pages

‘Lotta Elstads energy, wittiness and precision makes I Refuse to Think to one of this year's most enjoyable reads.

Within its comical genre, it is absolutely perfect; stimulating, exciting, funny, sharp – and somewhat dark.’

FÆDRELANDSVENNEN  ‘Lotta Elstad has written a novel that is funny, even if it is political. Elstad writes with energy and good timing. The suspense lasts until the last chapter.’

DAGSAVISEN ‘Lotta Elstad creates observing and fresh comedy out of the unwanted pregnancy of a freelancer. There has not been a lot of room for the easy going in Norwegian contemporary literature. Lotta Elstad clears the space for this kind of writing.

That is why it is so easy to let yourself be excited by her novels.’

MORGENBLADET Lotta Elstad (b. 1982) is a writer, journalist, historian and non-fiction editor. She has since her debut in 2008 published several acclaimed books, both narrative non-fiction and novels.

Rights sold to: Denmark (Hoff & Poulsen), France (Marabout), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Netherlands (Uitgeverij Prometheus), Romania (Casa Cartii)

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Siri Østli

THE CHRISTMAS CALENDAR During breakfast on a totally ordinary Tuesday, Fie's husband abruptly tells her that he wants a divorce and tells her to move out. He is a dentist, and for years Fie has as well as being his wife been his faithful assistant - without pay. Now she is banished to an both impractical and uncharming attic apartment on the other side of the city. Dazed and in despair that her life has been turned up-side down, Fie tries to soften the blow with sedatives. Her grown up son is embarrassed about his mother break down and does not answer his phone.

Adventskalenderen 130x205 mm

Fie´s sister Sara is the one who takes charge in the situation and demand that Fie get a grip of the situation. To speed things up, she gives Fie a challenging Christmas Calendar with new tasks every day leading up to Christmas.

And with this, despair turns into an adventurous, at times overwhelming but in the end pretty nice advent after all!

The Christmas Calendar is a charming and touching Christmas book from the Norwegian queen of feelgood!

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE

Siri Østli is married with five daughters and a university degree in French, Russian and Psychology.

She debuted with Across Greenland in High Heels in 2009, and has since then received excellent reviews on a number of feelgood novels. The Christmas Calendar is her latest book, and it takes her authorship in a more uplit direction.

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Excerpt from The Christmas Calendar Like most Christmas gnomes, the gnome had a red hat, a red jacket, red trousers and an unfeasibly bushy beard. It was a rather ordinary, tacky plastic Christmas gnome, where it sat atop a pile of red crepe paper. Its girth made up for any lack of stature. But what Fie noticed, first and foremost, was the eyes. The steely eyes, staring at her, looking straight into her own, which were glazed. The eyes reminded her more than anything of her grandmother, her father’s mother, but also all the janitors, teachers, aunts, and others who had ever nailed her with strict, judgemental eyes as she writhed in shame as a child.

“Is that any way to behave?” the shopping centre gnome said. “Look at yourself! You should be ashamed!”

She immediately felt the need to defend herself, to explain that she had good reason to be sitting here, on a window ledge, without make-up on, with greasy hair and none-too-clean clothes.

She wanted to say: “It’s not my fault.”

And then: Did the gnome think he looked any better himself ? There were quality gnomes with knitted clothes and beards of real wool.

Dignified gnomes. Gnomes with real shoes, not just some kind of black plastic cover pulled over plastic feet. Though Fie doubted there were even feet inside.

But even in the state she was in, she realised she shouldn’t sit here and argue with a gnome. She understood that her urge to shout at the gnome stemmed from the fact that she recognised – with some reluctance – he was right. And finally, it dawned on her that the anger she felt was nothing short of a miracle.

She hadn’t felt the impulse to argue with anyone for ages. What was the point? Nothing had meant anything as long as she was left in peace with her pills and could sleep away the days. This anger, this need to justify herself, was the first glimmer of light in what had felt like an eternity of dark fog.

Fie winked, and in her mind, the Christmas gnome winked back.

U PLI T

Jorid Mathiassen

WHERE THE WHITE LILIES GROW Hjartøy, Nordland, 2009: Linnea needs to get out of Oslo after a relationship ends. She accepts her friend Iris’ offer to stay in the old house that had once belonged to her great-aunt Marie.

Linnea knows nothing of what awaits her when she arrives in Hjartøy in the middle of winter, and the challenges are unending. One day, she finds a small clock that puts her on the trail of a dramatic story from World War II. Rynes, Nordland, 1942: A young girl named Marie is wrenched away from her safe life on Hjartøy when her older sister needs help. Her sister is married and lives on a farm in Rynes some miles to the north.

Der hvite liljer vokser 130x205 mm

Right next to the farm is a German prison camp where Serbian soldiers are living in terrible conditions. But in the midst of all the atrocities, love blossoms when Marie meets a young prisoner named Jovan. They both know it could mean death if their relationship is revealed, and Jovan decides to flee to Sweden. This proves to have dramatic consequences.

As Linnea finds out more and more about Marie, her own life also takes a new turn.

Jorid Mathiassen (b. 1965) grew up on the Helgeland coast up north, and now lives in Oslo. She has a major in Nordic language and literature from the University of Oslo and has the last ten years worked as a publishing editor at Cappelen Damm, and currently at Strawberry Publishing. Prior to being a publishing editor, she worked as a journalist in the magazine Bok & samfunn. Where the White Lilies Grow is her debut novel.

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Excerpt from Where White Lilies Grow

As soon as Marie finished washing the cups, she snuck out and started running toward the river. They’d heard shots coming from the camp earlier in the day, and she could hear the voice in her head saying it was more dangerous than ever to be wandering around outside, that the guards were being more watchful and that she was putting herself, the others in the house, and Jovan – if he was still alive – in even greater danger. Still, she ran and ran until she could taste blood. […]

She stopped as she approached their hiding place and slowly crept forward, looking around cautiously. The thought of the hateful face of the Norwegian guard who’d stopped her the first time still frightened her. She held her breath in total silence. Her heart was pounding and she closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them again, she saw the top of his head sticking out of the pit he’d made for them that was almost completely covered with branches. She let out her breath again and the relief flowed through her whole body like a waterfall.

U PLI T

Annicken R. Day

FLY, BUTTERFLY Maya Williams is an ambitious, hard­ working New York Business Woman, stymied on her way up the corporate ladder by sexist, male executives. But when she is sent to a conference in Hawaii and expected to lie on stage, she does the unthinkable – she tells the truth. After the event she has a break down on the beach, and then decides to stay in Kauai´i for a few days. After all: she was just fired.

In Kauai´i she meets people who open her eyes to different ways of thinking and being, she begins to see life, work, love – and her self – in a whole new light. She learns how to chill, to breathe and to be more in the moment. All of a sudden she has a vision of wanting a life that might be totally different from what she thought.

Fly, sommerfugl 130x205 mm / 320 pages

When Maya returns to the corporate world as an executive, can she implement her new philosophies and still succeed? And will her personal and professional metamorphosis ultimately bring her the happiness and freedom that she dreams of?

‘Fly, Butterfly is a page turner that draws you in and makes you nod furiously, laugh deeply and then sob with empathy. This is a powerful novel that has the energy to inspire change.’

AMY BRANN, Author of Engaged, Make Your Brain Work and Neuroscience for Coaches.

‘Annicken R. Day has a gift for transforming bureaucrazies into businesses that buzz with creativity and joy. With her debut novel, she shows that she also has a knack for crafting stories about transforming ourselves.’

ADAM GRANT, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take.

Annicken R. Day has worked with corporate culture for more than 20 years, i.e. as President of Culture at Norwegian Tandberg, and Cisco. Since 2012, she has been running her own company, Corporate Spring, where she leads her team in helping leaders and teams all over the world in building great places of employments and engaged corporate cultures. She is also a globally renowned public speaker, having written articles for Huffington Post and Business Insider, and co-authored the book Creative Superpowers. Her first novel, Fly, Butterfly, is a story that in many ways reflect Annicken's own experiences, philosophy of life and personal choices: Choosing the heart over the head, trust over fear, and keeping the courage to live one's own life on one's own terms. When Annicken is not travelling, she splits her time between Norway and California.

Rights sold to: Germany (Suhrkamp/Insel Verlag)

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FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AVAILABLE

U PLI T

Siri M. Kvamme

WONDERFUL VERA Welcome to Wrydale, the Twin Peaks of the Norwegian fjords!

Here Vera sits in the ticket booth at the local swimming pool, hoping that somebody in the municipal administration will die. Or retire. She isn’t wicked, just desperate. And with good reason, as it turns out.

Wonderful Vera is a novel that brims over with life and vigour, love and lies, humour and warmth, pipes and rebellion, laughter and sheer desperation.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE

Vidunderlige Vera 130x205 mm / 240 pages

Siri M. Kvamme (b. 1975) is a Norwegian author living in Haugesund, a city on the west coast of Norway.

Kvamme has studied Literature and Writing as well as worked as a journalist and literary critic for over ten years before she started writing full time. Along with her writing, she also arranges a very popular Literary Salon in the public library in Haugesund. Kvamme made her literary debut with Read and apart (2001), a collection of short prose. Her first novel Winter Heart (2008) was well received by the critics. In 2012 she published the novel Nightwanderer. The world is playing hide and seek was pulished in 2016.

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Excerpt from Wonderful Vera:

Vera has the wind at her back, and it feels surprisingly easy to pedal up the hill. She cycles all the way to the top. Sure, it’s steep, but that is probably why the Wrydalers are all in top shape, why their life expectancy is so high. When just popping by the neighbours becomes an up-hill race, it is only natural that their performance curve is set to match. Either they die of heart attacks midways up a hill, halfway through their glorious life. Or, they live until the nurses at the old folk’s home play rock paper scissors to decide who will euthanize them, to lay their old hides to rest.

Vera leaves her bike in the garage. There is plenty of space, as she doesn’t have a car. With the climate crisis and everything, it’s really more of a statement not to have a car. Nobody has to know that it’s because she can’t afford it. Now that it’s trendy to own less, Vera is hyper-modern. If anyone should care to ask, she can always say that she prefers to own less.

Instead of seeming poor, she will seem hip and modern, an environmentally conscious minimalist, almost a bit zenlike. If not for the total mess. The chaos behind the scenes.

Furthermore, she could say that she is doing a no-buy challenge. That is both sustainable and modern. This she can also use against her children, whenever they want something new, and she has to say no. After all, they are the ones who will inherit the earth.

CRI M E

Karin Fossum

DEADLY DRAGON, REMORSEFUL DOG We’re in it together, she said. No matter how it ends, we two are in it together – can you promise me that? That she’ll die pretty soon? They looked at each other and smiled. After all, it was only a game.

Aksel is a journalist with the local newspaper whose boss says he's ‘good at tragedies’. His sister Ellinor has lost her job and is desperately seeking to escape from reality. Brother and sister have been close since childhood, bound together by destiny.

A gas leak on a one of the big farms kills several hired hands in their sleep. It looks like an accident.

Drepende drage Angrende hund 130x205 mm / 240 pages

In a nearby house, an 80-year-old woman is found lying at the foot of her stairs one day, with a crushed skull.

Somebody has left the place in disarray to make it look like a burglary.

In Deadly Dragon, Remorseful Dog, we meet a new and unusual detective: Eddie Feber – a man blessed with joie de vivre and eight children. Alert and seemingly chaotic, he nonetheless has strategies for bringing the dark truth to light.

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILIABLE

Karin Fossum (1954–) made her literary debut in 1974 with the poetry collection Maybe Tomorrow (Kanskje i morgen), for which she won the Vesaas First Writer's Award. She has published books in several genres, but is best known for her crime fiction series about Inspector Konrad Sejer. Several of her books have been filmed for the screen and TV. She has received a number of prestigious awards, including an LA Times Book Award and The Brage Prize for her novel The Indian Bride (Elskede Poona). In 2017 The Riverton Club named her Best Norwegian Crime Writer through the times! Karin Fossum's books are translated into 34 languages.

Rights sold to: Finland (Johnny Kniga), Netherlands (Meulen Hoff)

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CRI M E

Karin Fossum

LOVELY CREATURE Konrad Sejer #15

A single mother finds a disturbing drawing in her son’s room.

A young man and a teenage boy meet by chance on the shores of the deep lake in Svartland Forest.

The next day, sixteen-year-old Gritt Zeeland is found dead in the same forest.

There are so many reasons why a pretty young girl might be in danger.

Police Superintendent Sejer finds himself dealing with a distressing murder mystery that has many possible solutions. Gritt Zeeland let almost nobody get close to her, but there were plenty of people –young and old – who had noticed her.

Lovely Creature is a profoundly penetrating crime novel about beauty and ugliness, tenderness and violence, great lies and painful realities.

'One of Karin Fossum´s very best!

DAGSAVISEN

Bakom synger døden 130x205 mm / 384 pages

N E W CRI M E FROM BEST­ SELLER K A RI N FOSSU M

'Masterful! An extremely actual and masterly performed crime novel. Everything is so well done that you feel like immedeatly reading the book again just to see how all the dots are connected.' ✶✶✶✶✶✶ VG

Rights sold to: Denmark (Gyldendal), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Sweden (Forum), Finland (Johnny Kniga)

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K A RI N FOSSU M 'S BEST­S ELLI NG KON R A D SE J ER NOV ELS

CRI M E / T H RI LLER

Grethe Bøe

MAYDAY Sensational Action Thriller Debut!

The Arctic is blowing up – and Ylva is the spark!

BESTSELLER!

Caught behind enemy lines, NATOpilots Ylva and John faces a seemingly impossible task: They have to cross the frozen Siberian tundra on foot - with the enemy at their heels – to get back to Norway and stop a catastrophe that might lead to World War III.

Mayday 130x205 mm / 336 pages

The relations between Russia and NATO are at a freezing point as NATO launches their greatest ever winter exercise in the far north of Norway. The Russians are provoked and mobilize their own “snap exercise” on the Russian side of the border.

A Russian fighter plane is provoking a Norwegian carrier helicopter in the border area between Norway and Russia, and F-16-pilots John Evans and Ylva Nordahl is sent to escort the helicopter safely to shore. The NATO-plane end up in a stress-flight with the Russian plane, and the F-16 is damaged in a near crash, it is then shot down after ending up on the Russian side of the border. The episode sparks political crisis where both Russia and NATO see the event as an attack.

The only thing that can stop an all-destructive conflict is the pilots Ylva Nordahl and John Evans making their way back across the border to Norway, to tell what really happened. It is a fight against time, as the Russian President, The General Secretary of NATO and private military industry are all sharpening their knives.

FULL ENGLISH TRANSLATION AVAILIABLE Grethe Bøe make her debut as an author with the action thriller Mayday. But she has for years been writing and directing internationally prize-winning films and TV-series from the Arctic areas.Her film Operasjon Arktis won the Amanda Prize in 2015 and was also featured at a number of international film festivals. She has worked as a camera assistant with Steven Spielberg.

Rights sold to: Estonia (Ajakirjade Kirjastus), Finland (Bazar), Germany (Heyene Verlag), Italy (Longanesi), Sweden (Modernista). Norway (Nordisk Film), Netherlands (Volt), United Kingdom (Mountain Leoprad Press)

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Foto: Fred Jonny

NORWEGIAN CRIME SENSATION: BRAVO! ‘Grethe Bøe makes a great debut with a chillingly realistic thriller where the north of Norway is in danger of becoming a new Crimea.

DAGBLADET  REFRESHING DEBUT ‘Grethe Bøe and her protagonist Ylva are fresh and welcome additions to the Norwegian Crime Book Universe. It feels refreshing to have the arrival of a female author writing in a genre otherwise dominated by men – already writing with authority and weight about anything from international politics and reindeer herding to how to fly a fighter jet. And not least in a language full of good and creative descriptions and sentences.’

VG A SERIOUSLY FRESH DEBUT The idea and potential is at top level, written with international approach, cockiness and thorough on all the detail; be it the technical parts of flying a fighter jet, military, political or geographical … with main characters that have extreme survival skills and technical knowledge.’

ADRESSEAVISA

CRI M E / T H RI LLER

Hans Olav Lahlum

PURE AS THE DRIVEN SNOW DI Engly Martinsen works against the clock to solve his biggest case yet.

Lawyer and Nazi Party member Jens Otto Helmersen has been found shot dead at his cabin, but the snow around it is untouched. Who is the murderer and how did they manage to commit this crime without leaving so much as a footprint behind them?

In this locked-room mystery from 1942 Oslo, Hans Olav Lahlum interweaves a historical crime mystery with the destinies of a troubled and politically divided family in occupied Norway.

Sneen var ren 130x205 mm / 272 pages

Hans Olav Lahlum (b. 1973) is a writer and historian. He made his literary debut with the critically acclaimed biography Oscar Torp in 2007. He has since published a number of crime novels and non-fiction books. His crime novels have become bestsellers in Norway, and are available in English, Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian, Danish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Russian, Slovakian and Korean.

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BACKLIST:

RIGHTS SOLD TO: SOUTH KOREA, DENMARK, SLOVAKIA, ­BULGARIA, ­V IETNAM, RUSSIA, GREAT BRITAIN, GREECE, P ­ ORTUGAL, TURKEY 53

CRI M E

Terje Bjøranger

THE CALIPHATE A young man is found murdered on Bygdøy island in Oslo. He is dressed in an orange suit and is holding his own head in his hands. Suspicion immediately falls on ISIS. Could there be a link to Islamist extremists or is this a set-up? Charlie Robertson and his police colleagues must work hard and fast to prevent further murders and – not least – to avoid terrorist atrocities the police fear are being planned.

The Caliphate is the third book about Detective Charlie Robertson.

Kalifatet 130x205 mm / 416 pages

Terje Bjøranger (b. 1959) lives in Lørenskog and works as a police prosecutor for Kripos. He made his debut in 2012 with The Third Sister. In 2017, he published the critically acclaimed Barcode. Bjøranger has also worked with the Norwegian UDI for several years in areas such as forced marriages and honor crimes.

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CRI M E

Ellen Gustavsen Simensen

BELIEVE ME WHEN I LIE Police officer Lars Lukassen sees the chance of a promotion when he is called out to investigate a dead body.

The situation at the police station in Hønefoss deteriorates when a sinister figure starts plaguing schoolchildren. At the same time, teacher Johanna Brekke arrives in town and Lars is attracted to her. But what is Johanna running away from, and who is friend and who is foe in the quest for truth?

Believe Me When I Lie is a psychological crime novel that spans a wide canvas, from eastern Norway to the far west of the country.

Tro meg når jeg lyver 130x205 mm / 263 pages

BESTSELLING CRIME DEBUT

ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION AVAILIABLE ‘The language is playful and colorful, with nature descriptions approaching the poetic and filmatic. Especially when the plot turns to western Norway, she’s good. Very good … This book debut proves to be a solid and suspense-driven thriller, where the author shares her keen insight into the human mind.’

RINGERIKES BLAD

Ellen G. Simensen (b. 1975) is educated works as a career consultant. She has attended Cappelen Damm’s crime author programme, hosts a crime podcast and has arranged several writing courses for young people.

Rights sold to: Sweden (Modernista), France (Editions Gallmeister)

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