Author Hélene Fermont drew our attention to her article in Red magazine about Scandinavian books beyond crime fiction.
Hélene’s list includes August Strindberg’s novel of 1887, The People of Hemsö, translated by Peter Graves and published by Norvik Press in 2012. This novel is a tragicomic story of lust, love and death among the fishermen and farmers of the island landscapes of the Stockholm Archipelago. As Hélene puts it, in this novel, ‘Strindberg explores exactly what happens when you marry for money’.
Also on Hélene’s list is Selma Lagerlöf’s Gösta Berling’s Saga, which is not one of Norvik’s publications, but we have published many of Lagerlöf’s other works in our series Lagerlöf in English. The same applies to Hjalmar Söderberg, who also made Hélene’s top ten.
We were also delighted to see Karin Boye listed. We plan to publish another novel by Karin Boye next year, in a translation by Amanda Doxtater: Kris, or Crisis.
Many thanks, Hélene! What a thought-provoking list.