Scandinavian Fiction

Si William Stark n'avait pas été intrigué par un SMS envoyé du Cameroun, René Ericksen, son boss au Bureau d'Aide au Développement, n'aurait pas été obligé de se débarrasser de lui. Si Marco, un jeune voleur gitan n'avait pas trouvé refuge là où le cadavre putréfié de Stark végète depuis trois ans, son oncle, chef d'un réseau mafieux, n'aurait pas lancé ses hommes à ses trousses à travers tout Copenhague pour l'empêcher de révéler à la police l'existence de ce corps qu'il a enterré de ses propres mains.

These dramatic and atmospheric tales are based on the Scandinavian myth cycle, one of the greatest and most culturally significant stories in the world. From the creation of the nine worlds to the final battle of Ragnarok, listeners will pore over the enthralling exploits of all-powerful Odin, mighty Thor and his hammer, and Loki, the infamous trickster. In this stunning anthology, the strange world of ancient magic, giants, dwarfs, and monsters is unforgettably imagined.

Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide for his daughter, Sally. Struggling to pay rent, he welcomes a lodger into their home: Karla, a law student and aspiring judge, who works as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Her clients are the Rytters, an incredibly wealthy couple who hide behind closed doors. The wife is ill and hasn’t left the house in months. The husband is controlling and obsessive. Is he just a worried husband, concerned for his wife’s health? Or is there something more sinister at play?

Seventeen years ago, Criminal Inspector Ewert Grens was called to the scene of a brutal crime. A family had been murdered, and the only survivor - and witness - was the five-year-old daughter. The girl was placed in the witness protection program, and the case went cold, but years later, Grens is still haunted by the seemingly random slaying and the little girl who was spared. So when he learns that the apartment where the crime occurred is now the scene of a mysterious break-in, Grens immediately fears that someone is intent on silencing the only witness.

Asle is an aging painter and widower who lives alone on the west coast of Norway. His only friends are his neighbor, Åsleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgängers—two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life. Written in melodious and hypnotic "slow prose," A New Name is the final installment of Jon Fosse's Septology.

Autumn of 1987 takes a young couple on a romantic trip in the Westfjords holiday - a trip that gets an unexpected ending and has catastrophic consequences. Ten years later a small group of friends go for a weekend in an old hunting lodge in Elliðaey. A place completely cut off from the outside world, to reconnect. But one of them isn't going to make it out alive. And Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is determined to find the truth in the darkness.

young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star – a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the force and is left with little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and get to work. A wave of similar murders is on the horizon. An emerging pattern suggests that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands....

Sur un télésiège de la station suédoise d’Åre, dans les montagnes du Jämtland, on découvre un corps gelé. Dans la neige, une écharpe en laine... Hanna Ahlander, récemment virée de la police de Stockholm (et accessoirement larguée par son petit ami), mène l’enquête avec l’inspecteur Daniel Lindskog. Entre la rebelle hantée par ses échecs et le jeune père débordé par son boulot, le courant passe.

1860. Después de que la madre no lograra sobrevivir al parto, el doctor Eldh decide cuidar y esconder en su casa de campo a la bebé sobreviviente. Desde su nacimiento, la niña, bautizada como Cesárea, vive aislada en el bosque de Liltuna, donde se enfrenta a una serie de situaciones que moldean su percepción del mundo y la llevan a experimentar el amor, la curiosidad, el miedo y la soledad en un asfixiante espacio de reclusión. Mientras la niña es acosada por sueños perturbadores, también parece recordar una serie de instrucciones que podrían provenir de su difunta madre.

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

Voici l'histoire du dernier des hommes qui parlait la langue des serpents, de sa sœur qui tomba amoureuse d'un ours, de sa mère qui rôtissait compulsivement des élans, de son grand-père qui guerroyait sans jambes, de son oncle qu'il aimait tant, d'une jeune fille qui croyait en l'amour, d'un sage qui ne l'était pas tant que ça, d'une paysanne qui rêvait d'un loup-garou, d'un vieil homme qui chassait les vents, d'une salamandre qui volait dans les airs, d'australopithèques qui élevaient des poux géants, d'un poisson titanesque las de ce monde et de chevaliers teutons.

Mañana y tarde es una novela breve e inolvidable, sobre el nacimiento y la muerte, escrita por uno los grandes narradores y dramaturgos europeos de las últimas décadas. Ganador del premio Nobel de literatura 2023. Nace un niño que se llamará Johannes. Muere un anciano llamado Johannes. Entre estos dos puntos, Jon Fosse nos da los detalles de toda una vida, condensados con gran belleza.

Dans le vaste pays blanc, l'esprit de Nanook se réveille. Le grand ours polaire, seigneur des lieux, protégera les siens jusqu'au bout. Adopté à l'âge de trois ans, Qaanaaq Adriensen n'a jamais remis les pieds sur sa terre natale, le Groenland. C'est à contrecœur que ce redoutable enquêteur de Copenhague accepte d'aller aider la police locale, démunie devant ce qui s'annonce comme la plus grande affaire criminelle du pays : quatre ouvriers de plateformes pétrolières ont été retrouvés, le corps déchiqueté. Les blessures semblent caractéristiques d'une attaque d'ours polaire.

Born in 1150 to a noble Swedish family and coming of age at a monastery under the tutelage of a Cistercian monk and a former Knight Templar, young Arn Magnusson is sent to fulfill his destiny beyond the cloister walls. But the world awaiting him is a place at odds with his monastic ways. And when the murder of a king engulfs Western Götaland into a whirlwind of intrigue and ruthless power plays, headstrong and naive Arn is forced to leave the woman he loves behind and take up arms to battle infidels in the Holy Land.

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

The body of a homeless woman is found in the river, viciously beaten and with all her teeth removed. A young immigrant, the prime suspect in a recent spate of robberies in Umeå, was seen running in the vicinity around the time the body was dumped. Trouble is, he hasn’t been seen since. When he does appear, in the town square, he’s wearing an explosive vest and holding a detonator.

In the Swedish ski resort of Åre, crime is rare. Certainly nothing so brutal as the murder of Johan Andersson, a former Olympic skier found bound and beaten to death in the forest. According to his distraught wife, he didn’t have any enemies in the world. To Detective Inspectors Hanna Ahlander and Daniel Lindskog, the crime proves otherwise. But what could have provoked such rage? And in whom?

En infernalsk historie om venskaber og magtkampe - moral og anstændighed. Om kvinden Molly, der dør, og de fire (!) mænd hun efterlader; ægtemanden George og tre elskere, hvoraf de to forenes i fælles afsky for den tredje. Historien ender i Amsterdam, og slutningen kommer unægtelig bag på de efterladte mænd.

Danmarks højest dekorerede soldat nogensinde, Niels Oxen, hutler sig gennem tilværelsen i Københavns nordvestkvarter. Den traumeramte krigsveteran lever af at samle flasker og spise madaffald fra supermarkeder. I håb om at få fred for sine indre dæmoner tager det tidligere medlem af Jægerkorpset sammen med sin hund til Nordjylland og slår lejr dybt inde i Rold Skov for at leve det simple liv. Men drømmen bliver til et mareridt for Niels Oxen.

An in-depth and personal exploration of Scandinavian crime fiction as a way into Scandinavian culture at large.