Gyldendal Agency Catalogue Autumn 2015

Gyldendal Agency Foreign Rights Guide Autumn 2015

Gyldendal Agency Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass 0130 Oslo, Norway Tel: +47 22034100 http://eng.gyldendal.no/

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Gyldendal Agency Autumn 2015 Anne Cathrine Eng Rights Director anne.cathrine.eng@gyldendal.no

gyldendal agency is an in-house literary agency

Gyldendal Agency Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS P.O. Box 6860 St. Olavs plass 0130 Oslo, Norway Tel: +47 22034100 http://eng.gyldendal.no/

Contents

Fiction 4 8 13

Children & Young Adults

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Friendship, exile, love, war and art: Johan Harstad’s breathtaking new epic has it all.

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Heidi Linde’s novel about the foot soldiers of the welfare state is a wonderful read, full of empathy and human insight.

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Leading titles Crime General fiction (novels, short stories, literary memoirs)

Black: The sequel to the Nordic Council Prize winner from last year is here!

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Picture books Read aloud / read alone Middle grade Young adults

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fiction novels and short stories

Max, Mischa & the Tet Offensive Johan Harstad Max Hansen is sleepless in the Midwest. He is a theatre director on tour across the US. It’s possible that he has turned into an American. He hasn’t been home for over 20 years.

If it was up to him he would never have left the place he was born, a suburb to Stavanger on the west coast of Norway, where kids could make as much noise as they wanted while their fathers were working on the oil rigs in the North Sea, and where a heavy silence descended on the houses when they returned. But no one gets what they want.

Max, Mischa & the Tet Offensive is a novel about the applicability of Vietnamese guerilla warfare in everyday life, about those who have been to war and those who have demonstrated against them: about hyperrealist paintings of washing machines and girls who look like Shelley Duvall; about the sun out on Fire Island and a sought-after working copy of Apocalypse Now. But more than anything this is a novel about the question anyone who has ever left home sooner or later has to ask himself: How long do you have to be away before it becomes too late to go home?

About the author Johan Harstad (b. 1979) made his debut in 2001 with the prose ­collection From Here On You Just Get Older. His first novel, Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, was published in 2005, and was a huge critical and commercial success. Harstad has also written short stories, theatre plays and a YA novel, and has been published in 20 territories. novel // ORIGINAL TITLE: MAX, MISCHA & TETOFFENSIVEN // 1000 PAGES

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fiction novels and short stories

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fiction Novels and short stories

This Is Norway Heidi Linde

“It’s both fun and awful to read about the Norwegian way of life and the Norwegian feeling of shame. This Is Norway is one of the most important novels published so far in 2015” NRK

“Linde’s literary qualities can hardly be questioned ... an original story with a smooth, easy flow”

In a hotel in Skien, far away from his wife and children, a man is doing his best to be happy about not having cancer. 300 kilometers further north, in Lillehammer, his mother-in-law is trying to figure out who she will be, now that her alcoholic husband has finally decided to stop drinking. In Sogndal an adult son is looking for a nursing home for his mother. In Trondheim a seven year old girl is struggling to find her place in a foster home. A pregnant couple in Jessheim gets a routine offer of prenatal diagnostics, while an employee of the Norwegian public welfare agency is unable to enjoy her holiday because she feels so sorry for everybody else.

This is the story of Norway, about the foot soldiers of the welfare state. About their dreams, disappointments and shortcomings, and about their deeply human longing to be a rock for others.

Dagsavisen

“This entertaining and at the same time powerfully moving book is different. It’s quite simply the story of Norway and the people who live there.” vg

About the author Heidi Linde was born in Asker outside of Oslo in 1973. She made her debut with the children’s book Mosquito Bite in 1998, and published her first novel for adults, Under the Table, in 2002. In 2011 she had a big breakthrough with her third novel, Yes, We Can!, which had fantastic reviews and sold 25,000 copies in Norway. Linde has also written radio plays and short films.

NOVEL // ORIGINAL TITLE: NORSK SOKKEL // 304 PAGES

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fiction Novels and short stories

Sample translation from the book

Once, long ago, it was precisely this silence that Ragnhild had longed for and missed. She had been so desperate for it that she left her family, or rather had tried to leave them. All the sounds that constantly filled the house: Ida slamming the doors and running up the stairs or across the floor with clacking heels; Espen, who it seemed would never learn how to talk indoors. He was 11 that autumn, a nail-biter and bed-wetter, so tall and thin, and utterly uncontrolled - the vase that fell to the floor in his wake, the explosive sound of the cellar window breaking when he kicked his ball too low. Ragnhild had taken him to the doctor in the end. She said: ‘I think there must be something wrong with his balance.’ She hadn’t dared to voice her fears, not in front of her son; she had read that brain tumours could affect your balance. The doctor was not particularly concerned, he did some simple test before confirming with a smile that at that age, boys were often all arms and legs. It’s possible that Trond didn’t make much noise, apart from his snoring of course, but his very presence became a kind of disturbance all the same, the silence around him always had something ominous about it, it was never possible to know how long it would last, like the still before the storm.

She had woken with a start one night that autumn, opened her eyes and thought: ‘I could just leave!’ It was such an utterly new thought and it completely overwhelmed her. Trond was asleep beside her, on his back – even though she had asked him countless times before to sleep on his side because of his snoring. His mouth was half open, a thread of spit between his lips that trembled with every snore, but didn’t break. Ragnhild threw the duvet to one side, got up and went over to the window and thought: ‘No one can stop me from leaving!’

She dug out the suitcase from the loft. It was big and black, they’d been given it as a wedding present. She carried it downstairs and put it carefully on the bed, she wanted to pack and leave straight away, but if she was going to find her clothes in the cupboard, she would have to turn the light on and then Trond would wake up, he was so sensitive to light, and he found it difficult to get back to sleep if he woke up in the middle of the night, and then there was the children, she had to make sure they got ready for school, make breakfast and pack lunches. Ragnhild looked at the clock. It was twenty past four. She felt completely awake. She tiptoed out into the bathroom, had a shower, put on some lipstick and the relatively new red blouse, then she went down to the kitchen, everything was so quiet, she sat by the window and watched the light grow as the sun rose over the Mjøsa and she thought: ‘Tomorrow I will be on my own!’

Translated by Kari Dickson

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fiction crime

Monopoly Helle Stensbak The evening after a concert for an enthusiastic full house at Rockefeller, the vocalist Sally Hov is brutally knifed to death close to Tøyenbadet swimming baths. The hunt for her killer is led by Chief Inspector Rigmor Stark and her colleagues, and it takes them to shady sides of Oslo’s music scene, where some people are clearly willing to go far to acquire power and status for themselves. Rigmor is a PhD drop-out who uses mathematics and economic analyses as a method of investigation. She is spontaneous, unorthodox and a little too prone to take foolhardy risks. But most of all she is someone who thinks. Round the clock. And her methods give results: her investigations take her on from the music scene to organised crime and something that looks like corruption within the police’s own ranks. But the closer Rigmor gets to a solution, the more obvious it becomes that someone is following her every step very closely.

About the author Helle Stensbak (b. 1961 in Hamar) lives in Oslo. She has a degree in social economics from the University of Oslo, works as chief economist at the Confederation of Vocational Unions and writes about economics in Norway’s largest morning paper. She was a musician for fifteen years and has played with a number of recognised bands in Oslo’s underground music scene.

The book has been illustrated with photographs by May-Irene Aasen. crime // Original TITLE: MONOPOL // 504 PAGES

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fiction crime

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Photo by May-Irene Aasen, taken from the book

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fiction crime

The Courier Kjell Ola Dahl

“Solid crime, rooted in war history ...

If anybody should write crime novels at all, Kjell Ola Dahl should be among them” NRK P2

“Intensely engaging ... It’s hard to put the book down” Romerikes Blad

“A sober and successful spy thriller, which gives associations to the black and white classic The Third Man ... A solid comeback”

In 1942 the Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, and saves her life.

Her family in Oslo is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm she meets the resistance hero Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and the suspicion of murdering his wife Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum appears to perish in a fire.

In 1967 Falkum shows up in Oslo, having been declared dead since 1943. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But why does he turn up only now, 25 years later? And what is the real reason for his return?

The events from the war catch up with Ester. She has also returned to Norway, having worked for the Israeli intelligence since the end of the war. Now she gets new information on Gerhard Falkum, information that forces her to take a new look at her past, and to revive her rusty combat skills.

Dagens Næringsliv

About the author Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993 and has published a series of crime novels about the police investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix. His crime novels has been published in 14 countries.

crime // ORIGINAL TITLE: KUREREN // 400 PAGES

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fiction crime

Mortal Wound Thomas Enger In the fifth and final installment of Enger’s bestselling crime series, we finally get the answer to the question: Who took the life of Henning Juul’s son?

Henning Juul is sitting in a boat out on a dark and small forest lake. A man with a firearm is sitting opposite him. At the man’s feet lies a corpse that is about to be dumped into the water.

Henning knows that soon he is going to suffer the same fate.

And he knows that it is his own fault.

Why did he have to involve his closest friends in the all-devouring hunt for the truth?

Why did he have to risk all these lives, change the fate of people around him?

At the same time, he knows that he has not had any choice in the matter. He had to know what happened when his son died.

• Fifth and final installment of the Juul series • Rights sold to 26 countries • 350,000 copies sold

About the author Thomas Enger (b. 1973) lives in Oslo and has formerly worked as a journalist.

In 2010 he made his debut with the crime novel Burned, which caused a great stir both at home and abroad even before its release. Mortal Wound is the fifth and last stand-alone book in the series about the crime journalist Henning Juul. The series has been sold to 26 countries.

crime // ORIGINAL TITLE: BANESÅR // 350 PAGES

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fiction crime

Incognito Eirik Wekre

“Wekre has shown again and again in his thrillers an amazing insight into the labyrinths of financial power behind the facade of politics. The tempo of the story makes for a captivating read - and often chillingly suspenseful” Varden

The country is in a deep political crisis. Norway’s prime minister has just announced his resignation and wishes to call an election. He is on his way to a private meeting early one Saturday morning when the car he is sitting in is blown up. The prime minister is killed. The entire country is placed on national alert and the special police security service adviser Theo Hannover is appointed to lead the investigation. What at first was thought to have been a bomb turns out to have been a shot from an armour-piercing weapon stolen from the Norwegian forces in Afghanistan. How did the weapon get to Norway and who was the PM on his way to meet? Who would profit from reducing the country to complete chaos? The clues point in a number of directions – including the country’s intelligence service.

Incognito is the third thriller in the series about Theo Hannover. As in all his books, Wekre is here frighteningly close to political and topical reality.

About the author Eirik Wekre (b. 1966 in Oslo) made his debut with the thriller Game without Rules in 2005. His breakthrough came with Operation Snow White, and his books have received enthusiastic reviews, also in Denmark.

THRILLER // Original title: INKOGNITO // 336 pages

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fiction novels and short stories

Smile Soudabeh Alishahi Partow lives outside Teheran with her husband Jones and father-in-law Haji Barat. Partow is an assistant in a hairdressing salon, Jones is insane and her father-in-law is a war invalid badly in need of care. To get everyday life to function, the family have employed Soleiman, who in various ways is to contribute to giving father and son the help they need.

The story in Smile is told by Partow, but when she gets hold of Soleiman’s diary, the novel alternates between his entries and her own narrative.

With a good deal of gallows humour and great empathy, Alishahi interweaves Iranian everyday life and the political reality before and after the introduction of the theocracy to create a novel that is out of the ordinary.

About the author Soudabeh Alishahi (b. 1963) is an Iranian author who lives in Norway. She was imprisoned by the Iranian theocracy, and became the first Oslo City of Refuge writer in 2001. Smile was originally written in Farsi, and the novel was translated by the writer Anne Oterholm together with Alishahi and Sheida Sangtarash and Siavash Sangtarash.

NOVEL  // ORIGINAL TITLE: SMIL // 480 PAGES

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fiction novels and short stories

A Tiger in The Garden Ari Behn A Tiger in The Garden contains ten short stories that portray violence and death, life in public and journalists at war, a TV-team meeting the yakuza in Japan, a male asylum seeker on the run with one of the victims of Utøya, young love in America, loneliness and loss of love.

The stories offer precise descriptions of people’s lives and fates. They are turned towards the world, and represent a new development in Behn’s writing.

About the author Ari Behn (b. 1972) grew up in England and northern Norway. He made his debut with the acclaimed short story collection Sad as Hell in 1999, and has since published three novels and a short story collection. In 2011 he made his debut as a playwright.

SHORT STORIES // KOLON FORLAG // ORIGINAL TITLE: DØDEN ER EN AVSPORING // 92 PAGES

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fiction novels and short stories

The Shanty Empire Hanna Dahl In her debut collection, Hanna Dahl writes about how language at some point or other started to distort reality and the people contained in it. About attempting to control her temperament, but not knowing how a disciplined temperament behaves.

About wanting to get to the bottom of sadness, or at any rate a little deeper down into the matter. About being afraid of the x-ray view that irradiates everything you see. About being almost overcome by longing and fighting a fairly disappointing struggle against the clock. About being reduced to a religion. And about the legionnaires who want to revive the empire mentality – while a column of slow nuclear ice-breakers plough thunder through the ice. For the empire is a boundary-breaking force.

About the author Hanna Dahl (b. 1977) is from Modum. She has an education in language and literature, with the main emphasis on Russia and the former Yugoslavia. Her short story ‘Crusader’ was published in the Norwegian Granta. Hanna Dahl lives in Oslo.

SHORT STORIES // ORIGINAL TITLE: RØNNEIMPERIET // 160 PAGES

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The Lost Ones Marlen Ferrer Liv, an academic, has left behind a half-grownup daughter and a divorced husband, taken on a translation assignment and settled in Mexico City.

Rather than a tame everyday life in modern Norwegian society she prefers sudden transitions and stark contrasts. She moves to a world inhabited by pensioned-off hippies, Mexican gangsters and a sad poet with a writing block; of people in free fall and dizzying highs, of longing, killings and betrayal. The life she lives in Mexico is one on the wild side, an existence of pleasure and stained bed linen, beyond the obligations her life has consisted of for so long.

The Lost Ones is a debut novel about love, existential choices and sudden death. About being alone in the world. And perhaps, at some point, about finding a form of consolation.

About the author Marlen Ferrer (b. 1973 in Barcelona) has a PhD in history from the University of Oslo. She has previously published several non-fiction books and is regularly on the panel of the Norwegian Radio and Television programme Big Bang. The Lost Ones is her debut novel.

Novel // Original title: DE BORTKOMNE // 304 pages

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fiction novels and short stories

The Empty Space in the Vitrine Ingar Sletten Kolloen An empty space in the vitrine has evoked a painful sense of loss in the Queen for a long time, and she gives her secretary an assignment: Procure for me that which I want more than anything else in the world!

But the fairy tale does not only start there.

It also starts in an inherited flat in Copenhagen, where the faithful and slightly simple Margrethe from The Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory has lived all her life. Now she has been given the sack and at once has to take a job as a washerwoman at TransportCentralen so as to survive and to support her slob of a husband, Mr. Jeppsen, who she had inadvertently married six years earlier. She fantasises about killing him. But she is spared this, for soon a series of events take her and her helper Magdelone, who sees beauty in every face, off on a wild journey to Norway, towards shattered dreams, queen-red lipstick and whirlwind love.

And the queen’s wish? The story tells of that too.

About the author Ingar Sletten Kolloen (b. 1951) has written some of Norway’s biggest selling biographies, on among others Knut Hamsun, Queen Sonja and Norway’s much-loved first TV cook Ingrid Espelid Hovig. Kolloen is attached to Lillehammer University College as part-time professor.

NOVEL // ORIGINAL TITLE: DEN TOMME PLASSEN I VITRINESKAPET // 300 PAGES

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Soon This Will Be Long Ago Victoria Lindberg

“Talent in spades ... It’s a long time since I last read a writer as stylistically ­confident and talented”

About love that suddenly comes about and abruptly comes to an end. The child that disappeared, the period that came all too soon and the infatuation that still lives on. A niqab that causes inconvenience and surprise, and a New Year’s Eve that is out of the ordinary.

Short stories about women and men, at various stages in life, their meeting with the unknown, with loneliness and each other. About everything in existence we rarely think about.

Tønsberg Blad

“The sorrow, the longing and the melancholy is represented with so much strength and poetry that you feel a lump in your throat” Dag og Tid

About the author Viktoria Lindberg (b. 1975) grew up in Horten and now lives in Oslo. She has an artistic background and a university education, and works a school teacher.

She made her debut in 2013 with the novel The Most Important Event in the World.

SHORT STORIES // ORIGINAL TITLE: SNART ER DETTE LENGE SIDEN // 208 PAGES

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fiction novels and short stories

The Bonfire Pål Gerhard Olsen In a small village by Norway’s longest river an intense emotional drama is enacted among some of the local young people, against a backdrop of dark family secrets. During the school-leaving celebrations in 1981, 14-year-old Håvard Bråtan is found dead. Most of the police and villagers dismiss the tragic occurrence as an accident, but a handful of the school-leavers know better, and thirty years later they meet at the funeral of Mona Jenshus, one of those involved, who in the meantime has become a prominent politician. This marks the beginning of an on-going exposure of the repressed events of the past, in which a charismatic teacher and a sinister, unsolved murder case from Bergen play an important role.

The Bonfire is a both raw and tender novel of intersecting stories, dealing with longing for a father, religious longing and longing for true community.

About the author Pål Gerhard Olsen (b. 1959 in Bergen) lives in Asker. He made his debut in 1985 and has written novels, plays and crime novels as well as a number of books for children and young people.

NOVEL // ORIGINAL TITLE: BÅLET // 392 PAGES

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fiction novels and short stories

Wolf Island Lajla Rolstad A powerful, personal and poetic account of a young woman’s stay alone in the wilderness.

“I’m standing in the S-train to the Gentofte Book Fair, having just finished the final page of the book; I love it. I already want to read it again, to give it to my mother, my grandmother and my two best friends. It’s such a quiet story, and yet so wild, my heart was beating hard several times while I read, even though what happened was so simple: a meeting with a wolf, a ceremony with a medicine man; so subtly dramatic” From a Danish reader’s report

‘Do I have to live my life in this way?’ Lajla Rolstad asks, and books a plane ticket to Canada. During the next few years, she spends long periods here, alone in the wilderness or on the road, among people who live outside society in peripheral areas or whom she comes across on her travels: marihuana growers, trappers, cowboys, hippies, adventurers and medicine men.

The first winter she is the caretaker at an isolated resort that is closed for the season. Her nearest neighbour lives half an hour walk away, through the forest. Gradually she learns to know her surroundings, the nature and animal life, as well as the other people on the island: a strange community of people who seemed to have washed ashore there, or just escaped from civilization and their old lives.

She later lives alone for a whole winter in a log cabin in an Indian reservation, with grizzly bears, wolves and strange men as her neighbours. An unprotected life.

About the author Lajla Rolstad (b. 1978) made her debut with the gothic steampunk suspense novel The Necronaut in 2009. Wolf Island is her second book. Rolstad was born and lives in Lillehammer.

NOVEL/LITERARY MEMOIR // ORIGINAL TITLE: ULVEØYA // 220 PAGES FOREIGN SALES // CZECH REPUBLIC (KNIHA ZLIN), DENMARK (BATZER), GERMANY (BTB)

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fiction novels and short stories

4 Stein Sørensen The year is 2014. Kyrre Tanding sits with an electronic ankle monitor serving the final part of a sentence for accessory to murder. But he is not waiting for his release. He is waiting for the informal punishment that the criminal circles have sentenced him to. He has lived this way for 11 years, and he has had enough. To be free he needs to find the courage to use the only means of power he has: telling the truth. If he tells everything he knows, there will be no point in killing him. The full story might destroy Kyrre, but it’s even more dangerous to the people threatening him.

4 is a gangster novel from Oslo, where crime weaves itself imperceptibly into the lives of the law-abiding citizens. It is a learned and suspenseful novel, told with great credibility and bottomless humour.

“I am completely overwhelmed ... [a] massive and distinctive prose debut ... a metaphysical thriller that would have impressed Borges and Calvino ... a digressive and at the same time stringent story, with no lack of either drama or action, while also packed with literary, philosophical, scientific and juridical references and dizzying essayistic parts.”

Henning Hagerup, highly regarded critic and essayist

About the author Stein Sørensen (b. 1976) works as a nurse at the infection department at Oslo’s largest hospital. He has published numerous pieces in large and small journals.

4 is his first book.

NOVEL // KOLON FORLAG // Original title: 4 // 484 PAGES

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children Picture books

Ruffen and the Time That Came Apart Tor Åge Bringsværd and Thore Hansen (ill.)

Eight years after the previous book, Ruffen is back at last in a completely new adventure. And it’s high time!

Some sinister walruses have broken into a secret room under the castle where Ruffen lives. There they have stolen something which, without their realising it, changes absolutely everything. Overnight, time ceases to exist, and suddenly past, present and future is tangled up into one huge, messy ball. And now it is up to Ruffen to disentangle it. In doing so, he is helped by good friends, both old and new.

In this seventh book about Ruffen – which is bigger, wilder and more lavish than ever before – the incomparable team of Tor Åge Bringsværd and Thore Hansen show us that even the tiniest event can have vast consequences.

About the author Tor Åge Bringsværd (b. 1939) has won numerous prizes for his works, both as a writer and playwright. He has published books in a number of genres for both children, young adults and adults, and is revered for his combination of humour, learnedness and rich imagination.

PICTURE BOOKS // ORIGINAL TITLE: RUFFEN OG TIDEN SOM GIKK I STYKKER // 72 PAGES

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children PICTURE BOOKS

Lion Roars and Cheerful Elephant’s Trunk Music Thore Hansen In the quiet little town of Gulaker only three children live: Jonas, Vera and Per Otto. It is so peaceful and quiet there that to them it is like a rainy Monday all week long. But one evening they suddenly see light in the windows of Hermansen’s old house, which has stood empty for many years. And five nights later they hear a mighty roar, one that causes people to tumble out of bed.

Has someone moved into the house? And who on earth roars like that?

From the creator of Ruffen and the writer and illustrator of a number of well-known children’s books comes this beautifully and subtly illustrated story of Leonard the lion and the children in Gulaker.

About the author Thore Hansen (b. 1942) has been among Norway’s most prominent illustrators ever since his debut with the first book about Ruffen (written by Tor Åge Bringsværd) in 1973. He has illustrated a large number of children’s books written by himself or by others, written sci-fi for adults and also worked as a scenographer and filmmaker.

PICTURE BOOKS 3-6 YEARS // Original title: LØVEBRØL OG MUNTER SNABELMUSIKK 44 pages

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children READ ALOUD

Brown Håkon Øvreås and Øyvind Torseter (ill.)

Nordic Council Literature Prize 2014 Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Prize 2013 Trollkrittet Debut Prize 2013 Shortlisted for the Brage Prize 2013

“In this enourmously charming book we meet three little superheroes, each equipped with a bucket of paint …

Torseter’s beautiful drawings show us what it’s like to feel small and out of place in a big world. They also evoke the warmth of the friendship between the children … Warmly recommended!”

As long as the sun is up, Rune is merely Rune, but come night he transforms himself into Brown - a totally fearless super hero. Armed to the hilt with brushes and brown paint he sneaks out of the house. Rune can hardly be blamed if Brown chooses to paint the big bullies’ bikes brown, can he?

Brown is a book about friendship, courage and retaliation. It is also a book about missing one’s grandfather and just how wrong things can go when your super hero powers run out.

Brown is the first book of a trilogy. The second book, Black, will be out autumn 2015.

Aftenposten

About the author Håkon Øvreås (b. 1974) has published three books of poetry. Brown is his first children’s book.

READ ALOUD 6-9 YEARS // Original title: brune // 133 pages FOREIGN SALES // Brazil, CHINA, DENMARK, FAROE ISLANDS, FRANCE, GERMANY, ICELAND, KOREA, NETHERLANDS, Spain, SWEDEN, US

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children READ ALOUD

Black Håkon Øvreås and Øyvind Torseter (ill.)

A new girl has moved into the old bakery. Atle finds her exciting. He thinks that if only he borrows the chairman’s prize-winning hen and then pretends that he has found it, he is sure to get into the newspaper, and the new girl will be impressed and like him.

It is worth a try.

But when the attempt does not go completely according to plan, everything suddenly becomes a bit tricky. Atle needs help from the super hero Black, and his faithful companions Brown and Blue.

Brown and Blue do not completely understand what has happened, or what they are involved in, but neither does Atle, really. Everything is ready for action and all sorts of complications.

“The dynamics between the verbal and visual story is good ... The prose is practically unblemished. And it is more open, more boldly unresolved.”

About the illustrator Øyvind torseter (b. 1972) is an award-winning writer and illustrator.

He won the award for most Beautiful Book of the Year 2013.

READ ALOUD 6-9 YEARS // ORIGINAL TITLE: SVARTLE // 200 PAGES FOREIGN SALES // denmark, sweden

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children READ ALONE

Down-Jacket Lies – Line’s World 3 Anneli Klepp and Sandra Steffensen Line has got to have a new down jacket. It’s got to be exactly like those Emma and Eva have, because cool friends have to have the same things. So say Emma and Eva. But mum says no, for Line got one a year earlier.

What’s she to do? She simply MUST have a new down jacket!

Fortunately, Alex has a brilliant idea...

Foreign sales for the Line’s World series: Exposed Secrets (Denmark, Flachs) Summer Surprises (Denmark, Flachs)

About the author and the illustrator Anneli Klepp made her debut in 2006 with Rotten Complications and Hot Blueberry Pie, and has sincewritten many books for children.

Sandra Steffensen (b. 1987) is a qualified illustrator from the Norwegian Vocational and Technical School in Trondheim and the University of Hertfordshire.

READ ALONE 6-9 YEARS // ORIGINAL TITLE: BOBLELØGNER 96 PAGES

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Children READ ALONE

Benny-Bob’s Banana Burger Arne Svingen and Flu Hartberg (ill.)

There are times Benny-Bob thinks it’s a bit stupid to be a teacher if you don’t like children. Especially when you’re made solely responsible for organising the school camp trip with the whole class.

But even if he doesn’t like children all that much, it can be quite smart to get to know them better.

As adults, some of them can become dictators, billionaires or hairdressers, and suddenly they will remember the nice teacher who took them to a school camp. If Benny-Bob is to become rich or get a free haircut, that’s the way it’s got to happen.

A wild, hilarious new series from Arne Svingen and Flu Hartberg!

About the authors Arne Svingen is one of our most popular writers and has a whole string of publications under his belt. His production ranges from easy-read books for children to YA novels that have received many awards and been sold to many countries.

Flu Hartberg (b. 1979) is a cartoonist and illustrator. He is a member of the creative community Dongery.

READ ALONE 6-9 YEARS // ORIGINAL TITLE: BENNY-BOBS BIFFBANAN // 128 PAGES

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Children MIDDLE GRADE

The World’s Worst Headmaster Marius Molaug and Kristoffer Kjølberg (ill.)

Laugh-out-loud comedy, packed with crazy and hilarious illustrations.

It is time for the annual swimming day at school, and this is Ruben’s final chance to earn his swimming achievement mark. There is only one problem: He can’t swim.

In order to earn the mark you must be able to swim 25 meters and dive down to the bottom of the pool. Oh, and you also have to save the headmaster, believe it or not. So, in addition to risking his own life, Ruben stands a fair chance of drowning his headmaster too. And although it doesn’t sound altogether bad to rid the world of the worst headmaster ever once and for all, it would be a lot better if Ruben himself didn’t have to die in the attempt.

In order to avoid that, he and his best friend Kent have to devise a plan. How to get out of swimming day – or preferably make sure the whole event is cancelled?

Ruben and Kent make some hair-raising and wild attempts, but the clock is ticking, and swimming day is approaching swiftly!

About the author Marius Molaug (b. 1976) works as editor of the ­Norwegian edition of Donald Duck. He is a member of the creative community Dongery.

MIDDLE GRADE // ORIGINAL TITLE: VERDENS VERSTE REKTOR // 112 PAGES FOREIGN SALES // DENMARK, GERMANY, SWEDEN

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children MIDDLE GRADE

The World’s Worst Holiday Ruben and Kent can’t wait for the summer holidays. Kent’s father has won three tickets to somewhere warm. But the trip does not go as planned.

Already on the first day, Kent’s father drifts out to sea, asleep on an air bed.

The boys are taken care of by the children’s club mascots Ball and Beaver. Beneath their costumes two chain-smoking, poker-playing louts are concealed, and soon Ruben and Kent are waddling around in the costumes. How is this all going to end?

The World’s Worst Christmas Christmas is approaching, and with it the annual Christmas play. Ruben has been cast as Virgin Mary, while Kent will play baby Jesus. The headmaster has snatched the role as God. Outside snow is tumbling down, and when Fat Frank, playing the archangel Gabriel, is hoisted up towards the ceiling of the school gym, the inevitable happens: The snow-covered roof collapses.

The actors are trapped with the headmaster and a donkey Kent’s father won at a pub quiz. The stage is set for the world’s worst Christmas.

About the illustrator Kristoffer Kjølberg (b. 1980) is a prize-winning illustrator and graphic designer. He is a member of the creative community Dongery.

MIDDLE GRADE // ORIGINAL TITLES: VERDENS VERSTE FERIE / VERDENS VERSTE JUL 100 PAGES / 100 PAGES FOREIGN SALES // GERMANY

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children MIDDLE GRADE

Icarus Olsen’s Fight to Get to the Top: The Pixie War Bjørn Ingvaldsen There is only one way: upwards... and possibly a little downwards too.

Icarus Olsen is 12 years old. He lives in a third basement floor together with his grandfather, who has been a diver and therefore knows everything about being right down on the bottom. But Icarus doesn’t want to be on the bottom any more. He’s tired of being on the bottom rung, along with his grandfather who is terribly poor. So he wants to move upwards, he wants to become rich and happy. And he has a plan. And the plan’s name is Dick, the richest of the rich boys in the class. Icarus is going to get Dick to invite him home. There he is going to learn everything about becoming happy.

A brand-new and rather black comedy from one of our best-known writers of children’s books.

About the author Bjørn Ingvaldsen (b.1962) has written a number of books for children and adults, including the popular books about the walking disaster Espen Herbert and the football team The Frogs. Many of his books have been translated into other languages.

MIDDLE GRADE 9-13 YEARS // ORIGINAL TITLE: IKAROS OLSENS KAMP FOR Å NÅ TOPPEN – NISSEKRIGEN // 130 PAGES

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children MIDDLE GRADE

Black Widow: The Mustang Widar Aspeli Nora runs away from home and makes for grandma’s place. Gran, who forgets and mixes things up and stuffs dirty washing in the freezer, her dentures in the oven and the chicken food in the fridge. Does Gran even realise that Grandpa is dead?

Out in the shed stands the rare, valuable Mustang, and behind the shed stands a ramshackle car in which a real black widow spider hides. And at the neighbouring farm Hell reigns a greedy big farmer and his son, who wants to get his hands on the Mustang. It is now up to Nora to protect the Mustang, the farm and Gran against the powers of Hell. Or is it perhaps Gran who protects Nora?

Black Widow is a warm, amusing and refreshing story about grief, loss and love. It deals with a spider and a grandma with super-powers. But most of all it deals with inner freedom and life as well as the importance of having both good and bad memories.

About the author Widar Aspeli (b. 1956) has written a number of books for children and young adults.

He was awarded the Askeladden Prize in 2007.

MIDDLE GRADE 9-13 YEARS // ORIGINAL TITLE: SORT ENKE: MUSTANGEN // 96 PAGES

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young adults fantasy

Kire 1: Hulder Tonje Tornes What if every fairy tale was true...?

“I’m sorry, Stephenie Meyer, your days are numbered. Make way for the hulders!” bok365.no

“There’s not exactly any lack of fantasy books, but Norwegian debut novels that are actually really good, are very welcome ... well-written, charming, suspenseful and quite serious.”

Erik’s mother has killed a young woman, and he was the only witness to the incident. He refuses to talk about it, because the whole thing is quite impossible. It wasn’t a human being she killed, but a hulder. They both saw her, a hulder who tried to lure him away with her. Now his mother has been sentenced and put away, and other hulders are on the prowl for Erik.

Erik and a group of other teenagers are entangled in a web of subterranean forces in the small rural community, and soon Erik can hardly tell reality from imagination. His only guide into this world of magic, is the seductive hulder Flora …

Hulder is the first volume of the Kire Trilogy.

Winner of the Readers’ Favourite vote at Barnebokkritikk.no 2013!

Dagbladet

About the author Tonje Tornes (b. 1977) works as a comic book editor. She also edited the anthologies The Living on Death (2004) and Prose in Pink (2006).

Hulder is her first book for young adults.

FANTASY // Original title: Kire 1 – Hulder // 280 pages

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young adults fantasy

Kire 2: Cursed Tonje Tornes In love. Bewitched. Cursed.

The plot thickens. Erik has been ordered by Flink to stay away from Flora, since wood nymphs ARE dangerous to people. But Erik plays with fire.

Meanwhile Lene is increasingly tormented, the twins’ powers are increasing and Flink’s magic is slipping away. And when the white stallion shows the way into the mountain, things get very dangerous for the four teenagers who are trapped in a web of magical forces.

Cursed is a darker sequel to Hulder, a fantasy universe where myths and legends about water spirits, wood nymphs, animals and Scandinavian folk beliefs form the backdrop to fantastical and sinister magic.

FANTASY // ORIGINAL TITLE: KIRE 2 – FORBANNET // 344 PAGES

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young adults fantasy

The Demon Hunters Sissel Chipman Julie is a shape-shifter. She can transform herself into a black panther whenever she wants, but this ability also means that everyday life on earth becomes boring. She wants to travel again, to other worlds where there are others like her. And she wants to have Henrik with her. But he has decided that he is never going to make use of his powers as a wolf hybrid any more.

Julie, though, is unable to accept this. So she opens a portal and sets out on another journey. She knows that it is highly dangerous and maybe she will not manage to return – but she has to do it, even so.

Two young people, some simple knights, a group of manipulative elves, several vulnerable unicorns and many deadly dangerous shape-shifters – a gripping, action-packed and slightly dangerous fantasy. The Demon Hunters is a stand-alone sequel to Professor Barlow’s Werewolf Experiment (2013).

About the author Sissel Chipman (b. 1965) grew up on Nøtterøy outside Tønsberg. She has written the fantasy series The Stone Circle as well as a number of books for children and young people. She lives in Canada.

FANTASY // ORIGINAL TITLE: DEMONJEGERNE // 400 PAGES

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young adults SUPERNATURAL THRILLER

The Time Rose The Lance Trilogy 1 Ørjan N. Karlsson Martin Sølvfoss goes to a boarding school in Cambridge, where it is end of term. Then Uncle Lauritz turns up – his father is missing on a boat trip. Martin must go home to Norway.

At the same time, strange things start to happen.

Martin has visions. He experiences time coming to a stop and receives a letter from his deceased grandfather in which it says that he has inherited a property. Martin sets out, and along with his friends Kaia, Elisabeth and Cad he soon realises that there is a great deal he never knew about his own grandfather and the Sølvfoss family. An incredible secret is revealed – since the Second World War Martin’s family have been guardians of one of the three holy fragments from the lance that was stuck into Christ’s side when he was hanging on the cross.

And now someone is searching for it.

The Time Rose is the first book of The Lance Trilogy.

About the author Ørjan Nordhus Karlsson (b. 1970) is a social scientist, has an army officer education and has also taken part in assignments overseas.

He has published several thrillers, science fiction and crime novels for adults. The Time Rose is his first novel for young adults.

SUPERNATURAL THRILLER // ORIGINAL TITLE: TIDSROSEN - LANSETRILOGIEN 1 // 248 PAGES

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young adults contemporary

Vanessa Svartmo Andrea Bræin Hovig I have just had a revelation: I am at the very bottom.

Of the planet. When it comes to happiness. I repeat: I am the unhappiest person on the planet Tellus.

Dammit.

Vanessa Svartmo lives with her mother in Oslo. She has just realised that she is at the very bottom of the planet when it comes to happiness. Her mother drinks and lies on the sofa, her father is conspicuously absent, and when it comes to friends things are not looking good either, to put it mildly. Grandiose self-awareness, in other words. But now Vanessa Svartmo is BLOODY WELL going to have a make-over!

When she meets the rich man’s son Gabriel, a new era starts in Vanessa’s life. We follow her from isolation into a community that emerges in group meetings in the school’s batik and matted wool clad school counsellor Brit Jørstad Moen, also known as BJM. Vanessa Svartmo deals with identity and friendship and being an outsider, and about finding a community where you least expect it.

About the author Andrea Bræing Hovig (b. 1973) made her debut with the book Wild Wilma in 2008. Its follow-up, Viva la Wild Wilma was published in 2009.

Hovig is also an actor and a singer.

contemporary // ORIGINAL TITLE: VANESSA SVARTMO // 150 PAGES

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young adults contemporary

#alphamale Jan Tore Noreng He’s got the lot: He’s smart, popular, good-looking, and has a body that all the other boys in tenth grade envy him. What’s more, he has a relationship going with Victoria, the perfect lady. His life is tailormade for Instagram.

But someone who has EVERYTHING also has EVERYTHING to lose. #alphamale is a powerful, perceptive psychological novel about a 15-year-old boy.

About the author Jan Tore Noreng (b. 1968) lives in Mefjordvær on Senja. Jan Tore has completed his writer studies at the University in Tromsø, has taught creative writing at the cultural school in the municipality of Berg, is a writer and works as a teacher.

CONTEMPORARY // ORIGINAL TITLE: #ALFAHANN // 328 PAGES

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young adults graphiic novel

The Bailiff Øystein Runde and Knut André Solberg (ill.)

Norway lies at the centre of the world. Leif Eriksson discovered a land west of Greenland, full of Apaches and Mohicans, and called it Leiferica.

From east and south come djinns, gods with elephant heads, stone statues from the Easter Islands and living totem poles. Gods, giants, trolls and dwarfs from all over the world walk the streets of Christiania (Oslo).

A single institution keeps order over this enormous societal machine: the Bailiffs. And no one is more eager in carrying out his duty than Bailiff no.

17, Mikael Braut. No one can prevent Bailiff no. 17 from following all the regulations in the manual of the Bailiff’s Office.

Not even those who invented the regulations.

About the author Øystein Runde (b. 1979) has drawn and co-authored the cult comic series Margarin, made a muscular Viking series and written two graphic novels where Ibsen fights trolls and zombies.

Knut André Solberg (b. 1972) graduated as best of his class at the Joe Kubert School. He won the Debut Prize at the Raptus Festival in 2007.

YOUNG ADULTS/GRAPHIC NOVEL // ORIGINAL TITLE: FUTEN / 144 PAGES

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