Stockholm Noir to replace Danish Chic?

Forshaw talks to Jens Lapidus ‘one of the most striking and idiosyncratic crime writers of the new Nordic wave’, who has ‘another identity — he is a highly successful criminal lawyer, and his clientele consists of precisely those individuals who populate the teeming pages of his novels. Is this one of the reasons why the books have such an air of verisimilitude?”
http://www.welovethisbook.com/features/lapping-it

‘Sarah Lund’ in London promoting The Killing II (SOLD OUT)

The Killing's Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). (Photo: BBC Four)

Actress Sofie Gråbøl will be in London for a The Killing II preview and a Question & Answer session at BAFTA in late October. The event is presented by BAFTA in partnership with BBC Four and the Embassy of Denmark in London.

The BAFTA TV Preview and Q&A Interview with actress Sofie Gråbøl and senior producer Piv Bernth takes place at BAFTA’s Princess Anne Theatre on October 31st at 18:30.

Unfortunately tickets are already sold out for this event, before the Book Club even heard that a date had been found for the event. Hopefully, some book-club members got tickets and can blog and tweet from the event.

Visit the Danish Embassy website for further information about the event and the forthcoming second season of The Killing.

BBC is yet to announce when the first episode of The Killing II will be aired.

Anne Holt joins Nordic Noir Book Club on 12. October 2011

Please visit our “Taken by Storm” page to learn more about this event and to reserve your (free) ticket. Tickets are already going fast, so be quick.

We shall be talking with Anne Holt about her two recently translated crime novels: 1222 and Fear Not. Please comment to this post about your experiences with reading Anne Holt, what questions we should ask her etc. Remember that the talk and discussion will be available for audio download through UCL iTunes – so, even though you may not be able to make it to the event itself, we could forward your questions to Holt, and you will be able to hear the answers in the Book Club podcast.

Nordic Noir on iTunes

Book Club meeting with Håkan Nesser

We have now made podcasts from three past events available on iTunes. You can listen to the recordings in any browser, or go to iTunes to subscribe to the feed and download to portable devices. We have recordings of Håkan Nesser and Francis Hopkinson, Yrsa Sigurdadottir and Richard Wall, Barry Forshaw and Victoria Cribb. Unfortunately we did not record the Danish crime event, but will return with new podcasts from the coming Nordic Noir Book Club meeting with Anne Holt on October 12 at UCL.

Click on the link below to go to the podcasts:

http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/nordic-noir-the-scandinavian/id460062986

Nesser and Alvtegen at the British Museum

If you did not witness this recent event live, you are now able to listen to audio clips from my conversation with Håkan Nesser and Karin Alvtegen at the World Literature Weekend organised by the London Review of Books:
http://tinyurl.com/3hjhpxs

Nordic Noir Book Club – Norwegian crime?

Today we have received the good news that Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt will be our next guest in the Nordic Noir Book Club. Early warning is for October 12, so reserve the day for a chilling storm from the mountains of Norway. More will follow as the organisation falls into place. Let us know what you think about Holt’s novels.

Nordic crime readers’ choice: what’s your favourite? (14 June)

The Nordic Noir Book Club is delighted to announce the next event in the series, which will take place on 14 June, 6pm – 8pm, at the Horse Hospital (Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD). Please register here: http://tinyurl.com/6g7wdn5, the cost is £5.

This event hopes to offer inspiration for your favourite Nordic crime novels to read over the summer.  Nordic Noir members, bloggers and new readers are all welcome to join us for some wine and snacks during an evening of sharing, discussion, crime quizzes, and much more. Please bring along your favourite Nordic crime novel, and think about how you want to persuade others to read it! We look forward to seeing you on 14 June! Send inquiries to nordic-noir@ucl.ac.uk.

Alvtegen and Nesser in London on June 19

On Sunday 19 June I will be chairing a discussion with Swedish crime writers Karin Alvtegen and Håkan Nesser at the London Review of Books’ World Literature Weekend. Judging from Nesser’s appearance in our first Book Club meeting in February, this promises to be a most fascinating and entertaining look into the fictional world of Nordic crime. The event is entitled Crime Fiction: Reading Scars, and this is the description form the LRB website:

Detection is the process of reconstructing events from the traces they have left – a body or a weapon is found, or a trace of blood, or even a speck of dust under a fingernail. From such evidence, a crime is unearthed. Behind crime fiction’s gripping narratives, there often lies a more incisive portrayal of a society than can be found in more obvious commentaries; and it offers a way to confront ideas of good and evil in a shades-of-grey world, where simple moral certainties aren’t so easy to find. Karin Alvtegen’s psychological crime thrillers include Missing, which in 2001 won the Glass Key, the premier Nordic crime writing award, and Shadow and Betrayal. Håkan Nesser is also a Glass Key winner; his latest book to be translated into English is The Inspector and Silence, starring his detective Van Veeteren, now retired and thinking of becoming a bookseller – until a young girl goes missing from a nearby religious summer school…

Book tickets now – it would be great to see some Book Club members at the British Museum in London.

Podcasts from Previous Events

I have now posted podcasts from the first meetings in the Nordic Noir Book Club on the website and this blog (see the pages “Shadows in the Snow” and “Secrets of the Ash” at the top of the blog page). We have recorded the talks and following discussions with Håkan Nesser, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Francis Hopkinson and Richard Wall, and hope many more than the fortunate book club members who could make it to London will now be able to enjoy the wonderful talks we have had so far. Please leave comments on the events and podcast on the relevant pages.

Danish writers in May Event & Question Competition

Members of the Nordic Noir Book Club have already been emailed with an invitation to our next special event featuring new Danish crime writers Jussi Adler-Olsen and Sissel-Jo Gazan. We have collaborated with the Danish Embassy and the two publishers on getting this event put together close to the launch date of their translated novels Mercy (Adler-Olsen) and The Dinosaur Feather (Gazan). Barry Forshaw will be presenting and discussing the novels with the writers, and we are very grateful to the Danish Embassy, Penguin and Quercus for making this event possible. The novels will be available for purchase at the event, and they will be in book stores from May 12th, as far as I know. You can find more information about the event and the writers at the top of the blog page.

“The-best-question-competition”

Since not everyone following this blog will be joining us for the event, we will have a little competition where everyone interested can post a reply to this blog post containing a question for the writers. The question will be asked by one of the organisers at the May 11 event and the answer(s) will be posted here. The best question will be selected by the organising committee, and will be awarded with one of the two novels signed by the author.

So, come up with some great questions about the writers, their books, Danish and/or Scandinavian crime that we could ask at the May 11 event. All answers should be submitted to the blog by May 9. The winner will be posted on the blog on the 10th of May.