I'm a French writer, originally from Provence, who found herself catapulted into Scandinavian culture almost twenty years ago when I married a Swede. When I wrote Block 46, my first book back in 2015, I set the plot in Falkenberg, a town on the west coast of Sweden, bringing my southern European culture face to face with the Scandinavian one, a kind of alliance between fire and ice. What I'm sharing with you today is the essence of my “empirical research” as a Swedish wife, an expatriate in Sweden, and a mother of three mini-Vikings, giving you the keys and the secrets of this northern culture that fascinates so much.
When I met my husband’s family a couple of decades back, his cousin told me: “You’ll never survive a relationship with a Swede if you do not know what “Lagom” is ”Lagom is our way of life.”
“Lagom” could be translated as “the right balance.” It means not too much and not too little. It can apply to work or to alcohol consumption. The Swedes often say “Lagom är bäst,” “Lagom is best”.
With a great sense of humour, Everdahl sheds an interesting light on Swedish culture. You’ll never see the Vikings the same way after this read!
Lagom, the Swedish word for "not too much, not too little", is spreading like wildfire around the world. The idea is to be consciously moderate and make your own decisions about career, clothes, travel and food, treating yourself to enjoyment, health and beauty without harming the environment.
Camilla Grebe has no equal when it comes to portraying Swedish society and culture. And she does it with poetry and accuracy.
In this book, her psychological profiler, Hanne Lagerlind-Schön, who is struggling with devastating early onset dementia, takes us to Ormberg, a small town on the Swedish east coast, to investigate a cold case.
This gripping social thriller is formidably well-crafted and the perfect companion during a snowy day.
A gripping, twisty new thriller from the bestselling author of The Ice Beneath Her, perfect for fans of Will Dean's Dark Pines.
A case as cold as the season. A profiler who can't remember. A killer ready to strike again.
Psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schoen and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren are invited to the small, sleepy industrial town of Ormberg to investigate a cold case: ten years earlier a five-year-old girl's remains were found in a cairn near the town.
But when a recurring memory problem resurfaces, Hanne struggles to keep track of the case. She begins keeping a diary,…
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been one of the most successful football players in Sweden.
His biography is one of the most read books in the country, and not just because Zlatan is a national hero, but also because the writer who penned that book is a brilliant one: David Lagercrantz, the former journalist, became a few years back the voice of Stieg Larsson, continuing his brilliant Millennium trilogy.
This book is a tale of an exceptional destiny told by one of the most talented voices in the Swedish literary scene.
Daring, flashy, innovative, volatile—no matter what they call him, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of soccer’s brightest stars. A top-scoring striker and captain of the Swedish national team, he has dominated the world’s most storied teams, including Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain. But his life wasn’t always so charmed.
Born to Balkan immigrants who divorced when he was a toddler, Zlatan learned self-reliance from his rough-and-tumble neighborhood. While his father, a Bosnian Muslim, drank to forget the war back home, his mother’s household was engulfed in chaos. Soccer was Zlatan’s release. Mixing in street moves and…
Sussi Louise Smith is a Danish artist, painter, poet, children's book author, and a daughter of the sea. Her work is influenced by the Baltic and North Seas, which she is missing greatly as she lives in England.
Sussi touches my soul and my heart with every verse and every story she tells, to the point that I chose one of her poems (“And So It Begins”) as an opening quote for my latest book.
On Draakensky Windmill Estate, magick and mystery rule. Sketch artist Charlotte Knight is hired to live on the estate while illustrating poetry under the direction of the reclusive spinster, and wind witch, Jaa Morland—who believes in ghosts. Charlotte quickly encounters the voice…
Camilla Läckberg's writing was a revelation to me because it was with this book that I fell in love with Nordic Noir.
But what I found out living here, in Sweden, is that Camilla, who is greatly admired in France and in the UK, is often criticized in her home country despite her tremendous success. Businesswoman, writer, and mother of four, Camilla is an exceptional woman, but she does not fit in with the prevailing Swedish “Lagom” in a country where celebrating success is sometimes regarded as a deadly sin.
This book marked the start of her incredible career.
“A top-notch thriller, one of the best of the genre” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) from international crime-writing sensation Camilla Läckberg tells the story of brutal murders in a small Swedish fishing village, and the shattering, decades-old secrets that precipitated them.
In this electrifying tale of suspense from an international crime-writing sensation, a grisly death exposes the dark heart of a Scandinavian seaside village. Erica Falck returns to her tiny, remote hometown of Fjällbacka, Sweden, after her parents’ deaths only to encounter another tragedy: the suicide of her childhood best friend, Alex. It’s Erica herself who finds Alex’s body—suspended in a bathtub…
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.
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 Rosen 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?
Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica — the GR20, Europe’s toughest long-distance footpath — to challenge what it means to grow old. Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The…
The Pact is a contemporary fiction novel about Australian sisters, Samantha and Annie, who are doubles tennis champions. This story amplifies the usual sibling issues and explores their professional partnership and personal relationships – similarities, differences, motivation, competition, abandonment, and grief – and how they each respond to the stress…
