One man’s fortune holds the key to a nation’s fate in this sensational debut novel set in 18th-century Sweden. The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann transports readers to a colorful Scandinavian world of intrigue and magic in a dazzling golden age of high art, music, and opulent fashion. A masterwork of historical fiction in the vein of Patrick Suskind’s classic novel, Perfume, Karen Engelmann’s The Stockholm Octavo is mysterious and romantic—as magical and enthralling as The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern—and features a brilliant and unforgettable cast of extraordinary characters.
'A delicious page-turner that brings 18th century Stockholm to vivid life, complete with scandal, conspiracy, mystery, and a hint of magic.' - Eleanor Brown, New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters In 18th century Stockholm, as the winds of revolution rage through the great capitals of Europe, the key to a nation's fate rests in the hands of an unlikely hero. Emil Larsson is a drinker, card player and contented bachelor until he is told that his position at the Office of Excise and Customs depends on his settling down and finding a wife. Mrs Sparrow, proprietor of an exclusive gaming house, fortune teller (and confidante of King Gustav III) offers to lay an Octavo for him - a form of cartomancy which can divine his future if he can find the eight individuals who can help him realise his vision. When Mrs Sparrow wins a mysterious fan in her card game, the Octavo's deeper powers are revealed. No longer just a game of the heart, collecting his Eight is now crucial to pulling his country back from the brink of rebellion and chaos. A debut novel full of opulent period detail, brilliantly interweaving history, romance and intrigue, in which one man's fortune holds the key to a nation's precarious fate.
From one of Sweden’s most astute cultural critics, a razor-sharp comedy of the progress and ruin of the industrial welfare state, told through the story of a single family. Ragnar Johansson is born in 1932, a transformative moment in Swedish history. He has Swedish social democracy flowing through his veins—convinced it lifted humankind out of the dark ages and into modernity, he cherishes it. At times Ragnar despises his mother, Svea, whose perpetual baking, scrubbing, and canning represent the poverty of the peasantry. Ragnar, for his part, hails the efficiency of washing machines and prefab food. Once he has children himself, he raises them in accordance with his values, standing in the ski track supporting his daughter Elsa as she works hard to become one of the best skiers in the country. While Svea is a relic of the past, Elsa represents hope for the future. In time, however, Ragnar realizes that the world is changing. Is his golden age coming to an end? In Son of Svea, Lena Andersson offers a characteristically funny, wise, and moving family chronicle about the social transformations that unite and divide us, and about finding the courage to be true to oneself.
An imaginative story of a woman caught in an alternate world—where she will need to learn the skills of magic to survive Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman. During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty. Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true. Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her “real life” against the dangerous power of love and magic. For lovers of Lev Grossman's The Magicians series (The Magicians and The Magician King) and Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night).
In 40 black-and-white photographs that range from the ephemeral to the Earthly, 35 of today's foremost photographers present the idea of angels in a stunning compendium.
Stockholm 1791. Revolutionens vindar drar genom Europa och även i Sverige börjar Gustav III:s makt att ifrågasättas. Emil Larsson är nöjd med att tillbringa sina dagar med att dricka och spela kort till den dag han inser att hans fortsatta yrkeskarriär som tulltjänsteman är beroende av att han hittar en kvinna att gifta sig med. Hans vän fru Sparf, ägare till ett exklusivt spelhus och spådam, med både Gustav III och hans bror Karl som klienter, hjälper Emil genom att lägga en octavo åt honom – en kortspådom som visar honom vilka åtta personer i hans närhet som kommer att förvandla hans drömmar till verklighet. Full av förhoppning börjar Emil leta bland arbetare och adel efter sina nya vänner. Men föga kan han ana att det som till en början var en oskyldig lek så småningom kommer att leda honom till en annan mycket mäktigare profetia –Stockholm octavo! Och innan Emil hinner förstå hur allt gått till finner han sig högst involverad i de mordiska intrigerna kring Gustav III.
A “shrewd, funny, and sometimes devastating” novel about the things we desire and the things we throw away (Entertainment Weekly). A New York Times Notable Book A highly inventive, corrosively funny story of our times, Want Not exposes three different worlds in various states of disrepair—a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate, whose brute talent for squeezing money out of unlikely places has yielded him a royal existence, trophy wife included. Want and desire propel these characters forward toward something, anything, more, until their worlds collide, briefly, randomly, yet irrevocably, in a shattering ending that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. “Its pleasures are endless."—Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End “Terrific…The novel may begin with prickly satire, it may dig deep into America’s disposable lifestyle, but it ultimately pivots to scenes of surprising tenderness…a novel to hoard.”—The Washington Post “Leaps nimbly from topic to topic…from freeganism to conspicuous consumption; from Manhattan's Alphabet City to residential New Jersey to the backwoods of Tennessee; and from neighbors with nothing but geographical location in common to sisters who share nothing but blood….Sitting down with Want Not is like finding yourself opposite the most interesting person at a dinner party. It pulls you in immediately; makes you shake your head in wonder and delight at your new companion's wit, originality, and compelling turns of phrase; and, best of all, surprises you into laughter.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “For readers who relish extravagant language, scathing wit and philosophical heft, Want Not wastes nothing.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Kafka meets the world of Brexit in a bitingly funny political satire from Ian McEwan That morning, Jim Sams, clever but by no means profound, woke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature. Jim Sams has undergone a metamorphosis. In his previous six-legged existence he was ignored or loathed, but in his new incarnation he has woken up to discover he is the most powerful man in Britain: the Prime Minister. His mission: a nationalist revival, with or without Europe. Nothing must get in his way: not the opposition, nor the dissenters within his own party. Not even the rules of parliamentary democracy. In this bitingly funny, Kafkaesque satire, Ian McEwan engages with scabrous humour a very recognizable political world and turns it on its head.
