Darcy Hurford

Boy meets girl at a dance school. Boy becomes a prominent scientist, girl becomes one of the first women to gain a doctorate in chemistry. Who is the genius from Breslau in Lena Einhorn's latest novel?

A collection of six interconnected short stories by Danny Wattin. Sharp and entertaining.

Adrian Perera's first novel is a claustrophobic story in four languages and plays with the reader’s assumptions from the word go.

Although the refugee crisis was depicted by press and politicians as a crisis in Sweden, Banke’s book is a timely reminder that the asylum seekers are in fact the ones facing a crisis.

In a novel that alternates between Finland and Cameroon, Sara Razai explores race, class, religion and belonging.

‘A pocket-sized emigrant epic’

Not only is the main character a girl, but the novel looks at other aspects of Viking life, particularly religion, literacy and social distinctions.

In Latvia, however, many people are constantly told they are Russians – however long they’ve lived there.

At a staff meeting, discussing ways to tackle the persistent issue of shoplifting, a security guard suggests the store deal with the problem by making culprits wear a sign saying ‘I am a thief’.

Nattexpressen is an exciting story for children that opens up opportunities for conversations on a hard topic: how to talk about people who have changed or who are no longer themselves.

Alsterdal has been carving out a niche as a writer of page-turners with a political, international flavour.

The historical novel – often long, usually impressively researched – is very much alive.

Thunander lets the people she meets speak for themselves – much of the text is directly quoted dialogue.

‘The problem is the same everywhere: introducing democracy hurts.’

Greek has given us many words: democracy, philosophy, logic and poetry. Since the collapse of the country’s economy however, a newer, unhappier vocabulary has sprung up associated with Greece: words like troika, corruption, austerity.

Fagerholm does not tell a story as much as evoke a world.

The idea of a Swedish disaster story is interesting in itself. The Hollywood output of scare stories is mind-numbing, but something about setting this story in rural Sweden makes it more unsettling than the most imaginative zombie invasion; we expect the Swedish countryside to be safe and uneventful.