Showing results by narrator "Sofia Engstrand" in All Categories

Ferocious and irreverent, this multiple prize-winning novel burns down the pretensions of a pompous literary establishment and takes no prisoners. Ellinor is thirty-six. She wears soft black sweatpants and a Michelin Man jacket. She fights. Smart and unsentimental, she tries her hand at online dating, only to be stranded in a snowstorm with a literary critic. Cut to Max Lamas, an author who dreams of a polyglot lover, a woman who will understand him in every tongue. His search takes him to Italy, where he befriends a Marchesa whose old Roman family is on the brink of ruin.

When Lily finally leaves her toxic relationship, a job as a nanny at Kewney Manor seems like the perfect solution. There, she can cut herself off from her old life, and never have to see him again. The Rowes seem like a model family, and Lily falls instantly in love with her new home. But she can’t help feeling that something isn’t quite right. Why will nobody tell her about the nanny before? Where does Laurie go at night? And what does Charles really want? As Lily becomes increasingly entangled in the Rowes’ lives, she realizes that the perfect family may not be all that they seem.

Marytè is a devoted beekeeper. She lives by the old rules: work with fellow beekeepers, be a good Christian and a good harvest will follow. These rules help her cope with her grief when she inherits her husband's tree hollows. But as harsh conditions and tax increases threaten the harvest, Marytè begins to question her faith, her community and her own sanity.

"The man was hanging stiffly by a slip noose, his shirt ripped to shreds, with a thick stick piercing his belly." Police constable Maria Wern and her colleagues are stunned by the bestiality they encounter. A similar murder occurred in Uppsala nine years earlier. The killer had apparently died in a car fire. Could there be a connection after all? Thanks to Maria's persistence, the image of a murderer begins to coalesce—a human being betrayed and degraded to the point where reality gives way to insanity.

Paradise is a nightmare. Holly Bloom works as an analyst for Flynn Industries. When she intercepts a confidential email stating that the luxury space station housing the wealthiest members of humanity has gone dark, she immediately volunteers to accompany the rescue team sent to fix the comm issue… but Saturnalia is nothing like the reclusive paradise she'd come to expect.

Morgan has felt left behind since her best friend moved away. On a quest for something more, she dreams of stepping out of her comfort zone and maybe becoming her own knight in shining armour. Jack's life isn't going to plan. The small-town life he retreated into after a bad break-up is starting to feel less idyllic and more isolating. Trying to write new, more exciting stories for themselves, they lean hard into weekly role-playing games with their friends and plans for a fantastical Renaissance Faire adventure.

Vinga dreams of the sea. She's going to be a sailor when she grows up, sailing to distant lands. At home, back in the city, Mum is sad and Dad has left for good. But here with Granddad on the island, all her problems feel far away. Summer goes on as usual, with porridge for breakfast, drinking rhubarb lemonade under the lilac tree and watching the sunset from 'her' cliff. But things are different now too. The heat vibrates during the day, and a girl with a black hat has started appearing. Her name is Ruth.

Recently dumped, heart-broken Ana struggles to put the past behind her on a post-graduation summer holiday exploring landmarks where a 14th Century mystic is said to have performed wonders. When the students sneak out to party in a sacred cave, a catastrophic earthquake hits. The survivors emerge in a world they don't recognise, stumbling into a battle between medieval knights and Northmen. The students flee and Ana is chased off a cliff by dutiful lieutenant Leon, who is badly injured in the fall.

A small group of people with different backgrounds meet to go for dog walks together in a green area in their suburb. Their paths would probably never have been crossed if it wasn't for their dogs and the walks. Through the walks they become friends and when the area is threatened because of building plans they join forces to save their oasis in the suburb.

When Lili meets Ben by chance one hot summer’s day, it feels like fate. But life is about to take them in different directions, and so they agree to meet next July, in the beautiful hidden garden where they first laid eyes on each other. But one of them never shows up. Five years later, Ben still wonders how he got things so wrong—he let the love of his life slip between his fingers. And then a stranger, Alice, arrives in his tiny Scottish hometown. Alice has no memory of how she got there: she can’t remember anything before that morning.

Is it possible for two people to get over their differences in this heartwarming feel-good about starting over and finding out who you really want to be? Advertiser Charlotte Hammar's high profile lifestyle falls apart unexpectedly and she is forced to reevaluate her assumptions on what life should look like. She packs up everything and moves to a small town where she must start over completely. She meets Kent, a local man who dreams of attracting tourists to the town using pikes.

For as long as Alice Carmichael can remember, the only thing she’s been able to count on is the written word. The war may have taken everything from her, but the stories she cherishes provide solace and escape into a world that is more hopeful than 1942 England. So when Alice finds herself at the mercy and kindness of strangers, miles from everything she’s ever known, it’s little surprise that books become her purpose.

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia; the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire – no matter the cost. With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood.

Visceral and poetic, these short stories reveal everyday miracles and trivialities, human desires and anxieties in a very recognizable reality. The woman who cooks soup for the lover whose fidelity she questions, the man who loses courage when faced with the birth of his child, the married couple who know they have embarked on their last summer together. In English for the first time, readers of Tove Ditlevsen and Tove Jansson will be thrilled to discover the debut short story collection of a celebrated Danish writer.