Tag: books in translation

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Yule Island – Johana Gusťawsson, translated by David Warriner

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Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide? As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman’s tragic death somehow hold the key?

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia’s deepest, darkest winter…

Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and television. Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently under way in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding was a number-one bestseller in France and received immense critical acclaim across the globe. Johana lives in Sweden with her Swedish husband and their three sons.

My thoughts: this is not a Christmas book, despite the title, it’s a creepy, dark read about obsession, murder, and how twisted some minds can get.

And it is also so, so good. Totally compelling, very enjoyable as I like dark, weird stuff, and peopled with very normal individuals, and some very disturbed ones passing as normal. Which of course makes it worse.

There are several narratives that once you realise what’s happening and how they interconnect, build to reveal the total horror that has taken place in the Gussman family’s manor house.

This is the second book I’ve read from this author, and it is deeply chilling but incredibly interesting and her writing (and the excellent work of the translator) just sucks you into the world Johana has created on this island. It’s that good. If you prefer your winter reading to be dark and full of horrors, monsters hidden in plain sight, then this is absolutely for you.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Dead Sweet – Katrin Júlíusdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates

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When a celebrated government official is found dead after his surprise birthday party, a young police officer uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives. Icelandic politician KatrÍn JÚlÍusdÓttir’s award-winning, breathtaking debut, and first in a chilling series.

When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn’t until young police officer SigurdÍs finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.

As Óttar’s shady business dealings become clear, a second, unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when SigurdÍs finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account. Following the trail to Minnesota, trauma rooted in SigurdÍs’s own childhood threatens to resurface and the investigation strikes chillingly close to home…

Atmospheric, deeply unsettling and full of breakneck twists and turns, Dead Sweet is a startling debut thriller that uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives, and kicks off an addictive, mind-blowing new series.

KatrÍn received the Blackbird Award, an Icelandic crime-writing prize, for her first novel, Dead Sweet. Her debut novel was reviewed well by critics and hit the best-selling lists in the first weeks after publication. KatrÍn has a political background and was a member of Parliament from 2003 until 2016. Before she was elected to Parliament, KatrÍn was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector, as well as the Managing Director of a student union during her uni years.

Translator – Quentin Bates escaped English suburbia as a teenager, jumping at the chance of a gap year working in Iceland. He is the author of a series of crime novels set in present-day Iceland (Frozen Out, Cold Steal, Chilled to the Bone, Winterlude, Cold Comfort and Thin Ice which have been published worldwide. He has translated all of Ragnar JÓnasson’s Dark Iceland series.

My thoughts: this was really good, but also really awful because when the truth comes out about the victim, Óttar, he turns out to have been one bad man and I didn’t really want the cops to find his killer, because weirdly I felt bad for them – not him!

SigurdÍs is a really good investigator, even if she does go off on her own – she just wants to prove to her bosses that she’s a great cop and not keep getting left out of investigations or given paperwork to shuffle.

I really hope this grows into a series as I was completely hooked, the writing (and Quentin’s brilliant translation work) was so gripping and compelling, even as I realised, oh no, he’s guilty of really gross and horrible things, I wanted to keep reading.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Door-to-Door Bookstore – Carsten Henn, translated by Melody Shaw

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There’s a book written for every one of us…
Carl may be 72 years old, but he’s young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the
perfect story for each person.
One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him – and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books.
When Carl’s job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl’s way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little European town?

THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE is a heart-warming tale of the value of friendship, the magic of reading, and the power of books to unite us all.

Translated by Melody Shaw


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Author Bio – Carsten Henn has worked as a radio presenter, wine and restaurant critic, and has published a number of successful novels. He lives in Germany.

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My thoughts: this was delightful and adorable and all about the magic of books!

I love the idea of Carl hand delivering the books every evening, and making up literary nicknames and back stories for each of his customers. I felt terrible for him when his friend, the bookshop’s owner, died and he lost his job. Thankfully his other friend, Schascha, has a plan to help him. And it involves books!

Sweet and charming, this is a wonderful story for book lovers everywhere.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

books, reviews

Book Review: The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer – Joel Dicker

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In the summer of 1994, the quiet seaside town of Orphea reels from the discovery of two brutal murders.

Confounding their superiors, two young police officers, Jesse Rosenberg and Derek Scott crack the case and arrest the murderer, earning themselves handsome promotions and the lasting respect of their colleagues.

But twenty years later, just as he is on the point of taking early retirement, Rosenberg is approached by Stephanie Mailer, a journalist who believes he made a mistake back in 1994 and that the real murderer is still out there, perhaps ready to strike again. Before she can give any more details however, Stephanie Mailer mysteriously disappears without trace, and Rosenberg and Scott are forced to confront the awful possibility that her suspicions might have been proved horribly true.

What happened to Stephanie Mailer?

What did she know?

And what really happened in Orphea all those years ago?

My thoughts:

I got an advance copy of this book at Capital Crime, which is due to be published by Quercus translated into English in May next year.

This is a doorstop of a crime thriller, but one that cracks along at quite a pace. Fantastic characterisation, strong, tense plotting, an abundance of strange suspects, and a clever, knotty plot.

I raced through this book, desperate to know what was about to happen, to solve the various crimes – Stephanie Mailer’s disappearance and the murders from 1994. I’m often pretty good at solving the crimes in most thrillers but this one was so smartly done that I got completely tangled up in the various threads and could empathise with Rosenberg, who struggled to unravel it himself.

I’ve not read any of Dicker’s other books, but I did watch some of the TV adaptation of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, which I gave up on as too long and meandering. Hopefully that was just the adaptation and not the book, as if this is anything to go by Dicker’s books are definitely worth reading.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Horizontal Collaboration – Navie & Carole Maurel*

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“Horizontal Collaboration” is a term used to describe the sexual and romantic relationships that some French women had with members of the occupying German forces during World War II. In this poignant, female-centered graphic novel created by writer/artist duo Carole Maurel and Mademoiselle Navie, the taboo of “sleeping with the enemy” is explored through the story of a passionate, and forbidden, affair. In June 1942, married Rose (whose husband is a prisoner of war) intervenes in the detainment of her Jewish friend and then accidentally embarks on a secret relationship with the investigating German officer, Mark. There is only one step between heroism and treason, and it’s often a dangerous one. Inside an apartment building on Paris’s 11th arrondissement, little escapes the notice of the blind husband of the concierge. Through his sightless but all-knowing eyes, we learn of Rose and Mark’s hidden relationship, and also of the intertwined stories and problems of the other tenants, largely women and children, who face such complex issues as domestic violence, incest, and prostitution. This fascinating graphic novel tackles the still-sensitive topic of who it is acceptable to love, and how, and the story’s drama is brought vividly to life by intimate and atmospheric illustrations.

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Carole Maurel cut her teeth on animated films before devoting herself to illustration, in particular, graphic novels. Her 2017 book The Apocalypse According to Magda was awarded the Artémisia Avenir award, which celebrates women in comics.

Navie is a screenwriter for press, cinema and television. She has a degree in history from The Sorbonne in Paris, where she specialized in the history of fascism – making Horizontal Collaboration an excellent fit for her first graphic novel

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This is a beautifully drawn story, translated into English by Margaret Morrison from the original French. The beating heart of the book is the love affair between Rose and Nazi officer Mark. But there are other stories in every apartment, of hiding Jews, and resistance, of love and loss, art and pain.

I loved this, told through the lives of women; a period where so often much of the focus is on men at war and not those left behind or under siege.

Part of my family originally came from France and I was raised by Francophile parents so I have a deep affection for the country and its people, as well as a fascination with its history, so linked are Britain and France. This year I want to read more French writers (especially women) and so this book slots beautifully into that aim.

*I was kindly gifted this book to take part on the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

books, reviews

Book Review: The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz

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The Millennium trilogy was the publishing sensation of the early twenty first century, Steig Larsson’s three novel story featuring antisocial hacker Lisbeth Salander and noble journalist Mikael Blomkvist sold in their millions, translated from the original Swedish, made into films (including a not very good Hollywood remake – seriously, stop it!).

But then Larsson died. With rumours of a projected further seven novels and a legal battle over his drafted fourth book, it looked like that was it for Salander and Blomkvist.

But here we are, legal wrangles over (however you feel about it), and a fourth book. Written by fellow Swedish novelist David Lagercrantz, from Larsson’s notes, The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

Larsson’s books were noticeable not only because they were hefty tomes, but also because of their often extremely violent and graphic content. The planned title for the first book was “Men Who Hate Women”, but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was easier to sell to a public who might have felt uncomfortable with such a clear misogynistic theme.

Larsson, like his hero Blomkvist, was a journalist who believed in the socialist ideals the Nordic region is famed for, he wrote campaigning political pieces, espoused feminism, fought corporations he saw as exploitative in his writings and his novels, to some extent, are a continuation of his beliefs and ideals.

Lagercrantz, isn’t quite as heavy hitting. Spider’s Web has less explicit violence, fewer political rants, and seems a little gentler on the reader.

That’s not to say it isn’t good, it is. Well written and paced, with a story that suits a world post Edward Snowden and the Panama Papers, a world that knows the governments of most nations are spying on their citizens, a world that has heard about the NSA’s counter intelligence game, a cynical world that knows criminals are more tech savvy than law enforcement and manage to get away with their crimes because of it.

Blomkvist is older, battle weary and close to giving up, it’s been some time since he last saw Salander, and his magazine is in trouble.

When a tech genius calls him in the middle of the night claiming his life is in danger, little does Blomkvist realise he’s about to he thrust into international conspiracy, tech fraud and meet a young boy who sees the world very differently. This case will bring him into contact once again with volatile Salander, who has her own reasons for getting involved.

I really enjoyed this, it was different in tone to the original trilogy, but I don’t think it suffers for it, personally I can do without extreme sexual violence, and I thought this was well executed.  

Have you read Girl in the Spider’s Web? Were you a fan of the original trilogy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.