Željka Černok

There are different ways to write about the Holocaust.

Kellerman’s self-awareness makes the writing both hysterically funny and sharply intelligent, creating a true picture of life as it is lived now.

He has an eye for the little absurdities of life: Helen invites her new work colleague to dinner hoping to pair him up with her friend, but her intentions are thwarted by her own husband getting too enchanted with the guy.

A disquieting feeling sets in ... Anything that is mentioned only casually ends up making you scared.

Even as a fictional character he would be fascinating. But he was real.

Orrenius is a smart journalist with a keen eye for paradoxes in legal systems and widely held beliefs. He lets people talk freely while he interviews them and, rather than ending an article with his own conclusions, he lets the reader draw their own.

The Agency of the title is a London theatre agency, run by a larger-than-life character called Semolina Pritchard.

A comprehensive study of the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe by a knowledgeable and brave journalist.

An historical novel about Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the Finnish national poet of the nineteenth century. With such a topic most readers would expect quite a serious approach. However, this novel was written by Erik Wahlstöm – and that makes all the difference.

Kjell Westö is a first-class storyteller and you don’t have to be interested in Finnish history to enjoy his books.

The unique thing about Mikaela Sundström is the style of her writing. Reading her novel is like meeting a gossipy neighbour after coming back to your home town, who wants to tell you everything about everybody, leaving you amused, confused and quite possibly, misinformed.

Robert Åsbacka's novel on the search for art in everyday life, with characters who are ordinary people appreciative of Beckett’s plays and Baroque organ music.

Hans Gunnarsson is one of the best chroniclers of contemporary life in Sweden.

Lena Andersson has written a diabolical satire about cravings, mass paranoia and mechanisms of control in a society that calls itself democratic.

In Nina Hemmingsson’s Room Without Title, we follow a woman who is trying to untangle an age-old conundrum: how did she end up in a bad relationship, and why can’t she leave?

Johanna Frid´s novel Harald’s Mother charts a difficult relationship between a mother and her daughter-in-law. It is a funny but at the same time deeply poignant take on love, family and relationships. A perfect read for book club discussions.

Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo's short, fragmented gem of a novel in which a woman ponders her impossible relationship with a married man, trying to figure out what to do with a love that is not supposed to exist. In a lovely poetic prose that glimmers with dark humour she tries to write her way back to inner strength and her own true self.

Under the piercing, watchful eye of the main character Anne in Carolina Ringskog Ferrada-Noli’s wildly entertaining and, at the same time, crushing novel It Is Chronic, the ways of today’s (western) world are picked apart and observed through the lens of pain.