The co-creator
of the longest-running Swedish soap opera in history
sends white-hot sparks of sensuality shooting over Scandinavia
this month with “a clearly political manifesto disguised
as an entertaining literary soap.” In Stars Without
Vertigo, now bounding up the Danish list (landing
just short of the top 10), well-known Swedish writer
and feminist Louise Boije af Gennäs unleashes
the semi-autobiographical tale of 32-year-old Sophie,
who enjoys conjugal contentment with a swell businessman
while building a career as a novelist and journalist.
The couple’s serenely bourgeois life amid Stockholm’s
hoity-toity lurches toward the wild side, however, when
lesbian radical feminist Kaja stalks on the scene, and
the friendship between the two women erupts into a passionate
love affair. Based largely on the author’s life (she,
too, was married to a man when she fell in love with
a prominent feminist in Stockholm), the book has wowed
critics with its depiction of those “wonderful moments
of vertigo experienced by the newly-in-love” and won
praise as “a novel with a purpose,” as it dives headlong
into questions of gender and prejudice. In real life,
the author abandoned her much-publicized, four-year
lesbian affair for the man to whom she is now married,
which begs the question: Will we see a sequel? The author’s
1991 novel Take What You Want sold 110,000 copies,
while the new one, which was originally published in
Sweden by Norstedts in 1996 (the book stirred
up too much controversy to get immediately published
abroad), has now sold 150,000 copies in Sweden. Rights
have just been sold to Norway (Damm), with a
film deal under negotiation in Denmark. Contact Charlotte
Jørgensen at Aschehoug.
Also in
Denmark, hypnotic Hitchcock film meets John
Grisham thrill ride in the latest offering from
native Dane Jussi Adler-Olsen. Branded a “thriller
of international standards,” Company Bash features
Indonesian-born Peter de Boer, who heads up a firm in
Holland that takes orders to bring down major corporations.
Trouble starts when he receives a call from sinister
Belgian operative Marc de Vires, who wants him to obliterate
the Iraqi oil company Q-Oil. Though he initially refuses,
our protagonist relents after a number of threats from
a terrorist ring led by the sadistic Rahman, amid haunting
real-world echoes of the Hussein regime. The author,
who is best known for his successful first novel The
Alphabet House (the story of two British pilots
who are shot down over Germany on a secret WWII mission,
a film version of which will be produced by Oscar winner
Just Betzer), is actually a book publisher who
spent most of his childhood co-habiting with his family
at various mental hospitals, picking up detailed knowledge
of the “crooked sides of life.” (His father was noted
sexologist Henry Olsen.) The multitasking Adler-Olsen
has also dabbled in the world of Saturday morning cartoons,
writing scripts for Donald Duck and Woody
Woodpecker episodes for Dutch publisher Oberon.
Rights to both novels have been sold in Holland (Unieboek),
and Finland (Gummerus/Book Studio), while
his first novel has also been published in Sweden (Bra
Böcker), Iceland (PP Forlag), and Spain/Latin
American (Planeta). Contact the Lennart Sane
Agency in Sweden.
In another
Swedish phenomenon, journalist Sven Olov Karlsson
launches a peculiar tale of aliens from outer space
who colonize rural Sweden in his debut novel, The
Italian. A tribute to the author’s late father,
the book features the Tubans — “a knowledge-hungry race
closely resembling green reading lamps” — who make contact
with protagonist Karl-Erik Andersson (nicknamed “the
Italian” since his schooldays because of his black hair
and dark complexion, and prone to epileptic fits caused
by a developing brain tumor). Transported to the Tubans’
ship during bouts of unconsciousness, Andersson slowly
unravels while his two sons watch helplessly. Loudly
praised as “a debut as strong as a tractor,” the book
is said to be simultaneously surreal, witty, and poignant
in its tribute to three generations ravaged by illness
and insecurity. All rights are available from Katarina
Grip at Nok (Sweden).
In Israel,
44-year-old Bible teacher and lecturer Yochi Brandes
peers through layers of classical Jewish culture to
report on the history of Zionism from an unconventional
perspective in her fourth and latest novel, White
Seeds. Deemed “a wonderful book for a winter weekend,”
the novel tells the stories of Osnat and Rebecca, two
women born a century apart: Osnat is a fabulously successful
woman wounded by childhood scars of orphanage and poverty,
while Rebecca is a Romanian country girl who becomes
a passionate Zionist farmer swept up in a truly “rags
to riches” scenario. Replete with a “sharp, thriller-like
twist,” the novel embeds historical chapters within
this tale of intricate family ties, ultimately probing
the power of storytelling to alter lives. Brandes’ 2000
bestseller Turn Off the Love sold about 60,000
copies, investigating among other things “the creation
of an artificial dog via magical incantations.” About
25,000 copies of the new one have been sold thus far,
and all foreign rights are available. Email the author
at brandes@netvision.net.il.
In Russia,
The Law of Triple Negation has just hit the stores
with a 300,000-copy print run. The 24th installment
from author Alexandra Marinina continues the
exploits of Anastasia Kamenskaya, a Moscow detective
who this time around gets into an accident and ends
up with a broken foot. She seeks out an alternative
healer who winds up dead when she calls him, and the
plot soon thickens like smoke from the author’s trademark
menthol lights. A former criminologist, Marinina has
been deemed one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People
in Russia.” “In short,” say adoring fans, “Alexandra
Marinina is the Jackie Collins of Russian literature
(only much better).” More than 32 million copies of
her books have been sold in Russia, with rights sold
to 23 countries including Germany (Fischer and
Argon), Spain (Planeta), Italy (Piemme),
France (Seuil), and Japan (Sakuhisha).
English rights are still available from agent Natan
Zablockis in Moscow.
