Tom Egeland: The Guardians of the Covenant

The Guardians of the Covenant
Tom Egeland
John Murray
ISBN 978-0-7195-2143-0
13 July 2009
$24.95 in Canada

En français : Les gardiens de l’Alliance

In the year 1013, Viking warriors raided an Egyptian tomb and unknowingly stole the greatest secret of the Old Testament. When a quirky archaeologist finds ancient Viking parchments containing runes and riddles, his mundane life is changed for good.

These codes lead him on a quest for clues in mysterious places, from Egyptian tombs to antiquarian bookshops. Powerful forces are against him, but he manages to unveil a religious cover-up with potentially fatal consequences.

Karin Fossum : La mort indienne (poche)

Maintenant disponible en format poche :

La mort indienne
Karin Fossum
J’ai lu
ISBN 978-2-290-00907-9
7 juillet 2009
13,95 $ au Canada

In English (United Kingdom & Canada): Calling Out For You
In English (United States): The Indian Bride

Gunder Jomann, célibataire endurci, part en Inde dans l’espoir de rencontrer celle qui deviendra sa femme. Ce n’est que quelques semaines plus tard que Poona le rejoint en Norvège. Mais le jour de son arrivée, rien ne se passe comme prévu. Le corps mutilé d’une jeune femme est retrouvé près de chez Gunder. Qui est-elle ? Qui à Elvestad est capable d’une telle inhumanité ? L’inspecteur Konrad Sejer, lui, sait que chacun est capable du pire.

La mort indienne est la troisième enquête du commissaire Konrad Sejer.

Jens Lapidus : Mafia blanche

Stockholm noir 2 : Mafia blanche
Jens Lapidus
Plon, « Thriller »
ISBN 978-2-259-20836-9
6 juillet 2009
42,95 $ au Canada

Une forêt, Mahmud, tenu en joue, supplie qu’on lui laisse la vie sauve. Jouée à la roulette russe, sa tête est épargnée.

Dès lors, il est l’un des trois hommes pris dans le tourbillon de violence et de vengeance de Mafia blanche : Niklas, un ex-mercenaire fanatique en croisade contre les violences faites aux femmes ; Thomas, flic déchu sur le point de basculer dans la criminalité ; et Mahmud, piégé par le gang des Yougos, obligé de vendre de la drogue pour Radovan, le parrain «made in Stockholm». Le cercle vicieux les avale, leurs crimes s’enchaînent à toute allure et les mènent droit vers l’enfer.

Jens Lapidus est de retour avec le second volet de sa trilogie noire. Et cette fois, c’est le noir total. En plus des dealers de cocaïne et autres personnages des bas-fonds de Stockholm noir, cette fois, les flics font partie du tableau : des bons et des mauvais, mais des purs et durs, broyés par une situation qui leur échappe complètement.

Marie Hermanson : La plage

La plage
Marie Hermanson
Serpent à plumes, « Domaine étranger »
ISBN 978-2-268-06813-8
6 juillet 2009
32,50 $ au Canada

Tångevik, une petite ville sur la côte suédoise. Ulrika y passait ses étés avec sa meilleure amie, Anne-Marie jusqu’au soir de la Saint-Jean, où la sœur adoptive d’Anne-Marie avait subitement disparu de la plage. Vingt-quatre ans plus tard, Ulrika se promène sur la même plage avec ses enfants qui y découvrent une tête de squelette.

Dans une atmosphère particulière, entre onirisme et roman noir, La Plage parle de la disparition sous toutes ses formes. C’est l’occasion aussi de rêver à la belle côte suédoise.

Marie Hermanson a su développer un genre unique et moderne, aux frontières de la réalité et du fantastique. Ses romans laissent au lecteur un goût de mystère, vacillant entre différentes atmosphères.

Anne Birkefeldt Ragde : La terre des mensonges

La trilogie Neshov 1 : La terre des mensonges
Anne Birkefeldt Ragde
Balland
ISBN 978-2-35315-039-7
6 juillet 2009
47,95 $ au Canada

In English: Berlin Poplars

«Un registre de condoléances était ouvert, un stylo posé en travers de la première page. Une photo encadrée de la défunte la montrait en blouson sur une plage de galets, tenant à la main une racine d’arbre grise qui avait l’air d’un cygne.»

Après la mort de leur mère, trois frères que tout sépare se retrouvent dans la ferme familiale. Tor, l’aîné, se consacre à l’élevage de porcs, Margido dirige une entreprise de pompes funèbres et Erlend est décorateur de vitrines à Copenhague. Les retrouvailles s’annoncent mouvementées : la tension atteint son paroxysme lorsque la question de l’héritage amène le père de famille à révéler un terrible secret.

Grettir’s Saga

New translation:

Grettir’s Saga
Translated by Jesse Byock
Oxford University Press
ISBN 978-0-19-280152-4
July 2009
$19.95 in Canada

‘You will be made an outlaw, forced always to live in the wilds and to live alone.’

A sweeping epic of the Viking Age, Grettir’s Saga follows the life of the outlaw Grettir the Strong as he battles against sorcery, bad luck, and the vengefulness of his enemies. Feared by many, Grettir is a warrior and also a poet and a lover, who is afraid of the dark. Unable to resolve the dispute that has outlawed him, he lives outside the bounds of family life and he roams the countryside, ridding Iceland and Norway of berserker warriors, trolls, and the walking dead.

The saga presents a poignant story of medieval Icelandic society, combining details of everyday legal disputes with folklore and legend. Written in the fourteenth century, but based on earlier oral and written sources, Grettir’s Saga, with its scathing humour, explicit verses, and fantastic monsters, is among the most famous and widely read of Iceland’s sagas.

This new translation features extensive illustrative material to elucidate the story.

See also: Icelandic Sagas Bibliography Project

Lars Saabye Christensen : Le modèle (poche)

Prochainement en format poche :

Le modèle
Lars Saabye Christensen
Le livre de poche
ISBN 978-2-253-12547-1
3 juillet 2009
14,50 $ au Canada

Peter Wihl, peintre norvégien reconnu, prépare sa prochaine exposition qui tombe le jour de ses cinquante ans. Confronté à un double défi, celui de composer douze nouvelles toiles mais aussi de se renouveler depuis les corps morcelés qui ont fait le succès d’Amputations, son exposition inaugurale, il est victime d’une attaque et devient aveugle. Ce handicap, qui menace l’activité créatrice du peintre, va réveiller les instincts les plus vils chez cet homme faible et souvent indélicat. Quelles limites morales et éthiques est-il capable de franchir pour enrayer le mal ? Le mal, justement, en la personne de l’ophtalmologiste méphistophélique Thomas Hammer. Le modèle tombe de son piédestal, le peintre sombre dans l’oubli, le mari suscite le rejet, le père effraie sa fille, l’ami devient un inconnu… Un roman psychologique et faustien, tout autant qu’une tragédie familiale.

Kerstin Ekman: God’s Mercy

Wolfskin Trilogy 1: God’s Mercy
Kerstin Ekman
Bison Books
ISBN 978-0-8032-2458-2
July 2009 (USA)*

* Canadian price and availability (via Nebraska/Codasat/UTP) not known at this time.

When Hillevi, a young, inexperienced midwife, moves from the university town of Uppsala to the wilderness of Svartvattnet (Blackwater) to be with her unofficial fiancé, she is ill prepared for what awaits her. In this frigid, austere, and isolated territory, she encounters the overwhelming and unpredictable forces of nature and demoralizing poverty and ignorance while also gaining access to the unfamiliar world of nomadic Sami reindeer herders. A single traumatic event, never fully confronted, has devastating and far-reaching repercussions, but Hillevi also finds unexpected warmth and love.

Incorporating elements of the jojk oral tradition of Sami culture, God’s Mercy is a thoroughly engrossing story about the capriciousness of memory, the resilience of the human psyche, and the endless wonder of the wild.

God’s Mercy is the first novel in the “Wolfskin” trilogy, which includes The Last String and Scratchcards.

Kjell Ola Dahl: The Last Fix

The Last Fix
Kjell Ola Dahl
Faber & Faber
ISBN 978-0-571-23294-9
28 July 2009
$10.99 in Canada

Original Title: En liten gyllen ring

Katrine Bratterud is on the verge of finishing a spell in drug rehab. One evening celebrating her success at the shore of a lake she senses that she is not alone. In the dim early morning light she sees a naked man approaching from out of the woods…The discovery of Katrine’s corpse the following day brings police officers Gunnarstranda and Frolich onto the case and into a world of secrets and lies that stretches back generations. Katrine’s past as a prostitute makes her easy prey to a series of men, who immediately become suspects – and victims. In a world of secrets can the Oslo Detectives find out the truth about these grisly murders in time before the killer strikes again…?

Katarina Mazetti: Benny and Shrimp

Benny and Shrimp
Katarina Mazetti
Short Books
ISBN 978-1-906021-36-8
5 February 2009
$15.00 in Canada

Penguin
ISBN 978-0-14-311599-1
29 July 2009
$17.50 in Canada

N.B. – The above information is predicated on the hypothesis that this UK edition will indeed be imported into the Canadian market. Penguin USA have their own American edition planned for July 2009 (ISBN 978-0-14-311599-1), and as Penguin Canada distribute both Short Books and Penguin USA, it is not clear whether it will be the British or American edition that will ultimately make it to Canada.

Short Books hold UK+Commonwealth rights on this title, but when it suits them publishers and distributors will often forget that Canada is part of the Commonwealth. Since the previous edition from Short Books (ISBN 978-1-904977-41-4) didn’t make it over to Canada, it’s hard to be overly optimistic on this one, but one simply never knows.

Update 2009-01-20: Penguuin Canada sent us the Summer 2009 catalogues late last week, and in the Penguin USA Summer 2009 catalogue (pages 74-75), the American edition of Benny and Shrimp mentioned above (complete with an absolutely horrid cover design, as usual) is listed as ‘NCR’ which, in bookseller lingo, means not for sale in Canada. So I’m thinking hooray!, the British edition will be available over here after all. But then today I was informed by Short Books that, even though they claim on their website to hold the Commonwealth rights for this title, they don’t consider Canada to be part of the Commonwealth (news to me!), so they won’t be making their edition available in Canada either. If this is how they’re going to treat us (whether it’s ignorance or contempt, it’s not very pleasant), I don’t know why we should keep Liz as our head of state. I’ve got a message into Penguin Canada asking for an explanation but, as things stand right now, this book will not be available in Canada. Have to read it in French I suppose.

Update 2009-01-23: This week it has been confirmed by both Short Books and Penguin Canada that it will indeed by the American edition that will be imported into Canada, and that the ‘NCR’ status in the Penguin USA catalogue is an error. Not only will we have to wait several months for Penguin USA to get around to releasing it over here but, when they finally do, our patience will be rewarded with an impossibly unattractive made in the USA cover design. A veritable kick in the teeth, it has to be said…

En français : Le mec de la tombe d’à côté

Why is it so impossible to get a relationship to work between two mature single people, driven by an enormous longing and loudly ticking biological clocks? Especially when they are struck by a totally unexpected passion when they first meet…

In alternate chapters, Benny and “Shrimp” tell the story of a love that started by mistake in a village cemetery, a love that should not really be as complicated as it seems. She is a childless young widow with a sharp intellect and a home so tidy that even her jam jars are in alphabetical order. He is a gentle, overworked milk farmer, a reluctant loner, who fears becoming the village’s Old Bachelor. The attraction between them is powerful. But how will she learn to accept that he falls asleep at the opera and has a house full of his mother’s embroidered wall hangings, and how could he ever feel at home in her minimalist apartment, bare as a dentist’s waiting room?

In Benny & Shrimp, Katarina Mazetti brilliantly captures the intensity of an unexpected love affair, and the heartbreaking inevitability with which life tends to get in the way.

~~~~~

An international sensation, this addictively readable tale asks the question: Why is it so impossible to get a relationship between two middle-aged misfits to work? The answer lies in the story of Shrimp, a young widowed librarian with a sharp intellect and a home so tidy that her jam jars are in alphabetical order; Benny, a gentle, overworked milk farmer who fears becoming the village’s Old Bachelor; and an unlikely love that should not be as complicated as it seems. Reminiscent of the works of Carol Shields, this quirky, humorous, beautifully told novel breathes new life into the age-old conundrum that is love.