Morgan’s Comments (group member since Jun 08, 2010)

Morgan’s comments from the Scandinavian and Nordic Fiction in English group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/boo...

Publishers and booksellers are in a rush to find more Nordic noir to follow Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, known for the indelible characters of Ms. Salander and the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The books have become a publishing phenomenon, selling 6 million copies in the United States and 35 million copies worldwide — nearly four times the population of Sweden. The third and final book in the series, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” was published last month in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf and instantly became the must-read book of the summer.

But Mr. Larsson died in 2004 at the age of 50; the series is seemingly at an end just at the moment when the public’s appetite for Mr. Larsson’s brand of Scandinavian mayhem is at its peak. (An unfinished fourth manuscript may extend the series.)

“The question is, after everybody reads ‘Hornet’s Nest,’ what are they going to do?” said Stan Hynds, a book buyer at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt. “I’ve got this funny feeling that every publisher is going to come out with the next Stieg Larsson.”

...

Scandinavian writers who have had small but devoted followings are now seeing their books showcased alongside Mr. Larsson’s extraordinarily popular series. The intense interest in the Larsson books prompted the staff at Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., to create a special section in the store for two dozen Scandinavian mysteries, by Karin Fossum, Jo Nesbo, Kjell Eriksson and Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

In March, a mystery by Mr. Mankell, who has been publishing books in Sweden since 1973, reached The New York Times hardcover best-seller list for the first time. The fall catalog for Minotaur Books, part of Macmillan, notes that “Hypothermia,” by the Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason, will be marketed directly to fans of Mr. Larsson. Knopf recently signed Mr. Nesbo, a Norwegian novelist, to a three-book deal. In September, Pantheon plans to publish “Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End” by Leif G. W. Persson, another potential follow-up to Mr. Larsson.

Rachel - I put a bunch of my favorites on this group's bookshelf, so check it out. My favorites are the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson (classic children's lit - you may have seen my arm tattoo, that's where it comes from), Halldor Laxness (Nobel-winning classic lit from Iceland), and some of the mystery authors like Karin Fossum, Arnaldur Indridason, and Hakan Nesser. I've started to read the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Kristin Undset (another Nobel winner, I believe), and am liking it very much.

This list on Goodreads might be of interest to members of this group.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...