Swedish Week! Celebrate the arrival of Fredrik Backman, Katarina Bivald, and maybe Ikea.

I'm going to start this post with a quiz. Can you guess the name of these popular bestsellers through their Swedish title? Answer below or you can use a translation program if you don't want to wait.

Kvinnan på tåget
Livet efter dig
Ljuset vi inte ser

What with the news about Ikea opening in Oak Creek in 2018 (see this Journal Sentinel article from Tom Daykin), it's time for Milwaukee area residents to start thinking about blueberry soup, lingonberry jam, and how to cook reindeer (tacos?).

But maybe one way to get in the habit is by helping us celebrate Swedish week at Boswell. It's a rare thing when we get an author to visit us from Europe (well, not that rare - we just hosted Ireland's Sara Baume in March) but to have two authors from Sweden within seven days of each other is unprecedented.

On Saturday, May 14, 2 pm, we're celebrating the third release from Fredrik Backman with a conversation between Backman and Milwaukee Magazine's Claire Hanan. Backman is the author of A Man Called Ove (we're going with the pronunciation of OO-vuh) and My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and his new release Britt-Marie Was Here, is getting the same sort of raves. This is a free event but come a little early as we expect a large and enthusiastic crowd.

And then on Thursday, May 19, 7 pm, we're doing book club night featuring selections from Jane and myself, followed by a presentation from Katarina Bivald, author of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. This is one of our favorite novels of 2016, and it's been a favorite of folks who love The Little Paris Bookshop and the novels of Antoine Laurain.

For a little help, I turned to the Swedish bookshop Akademibokhandeln, where I learned that "se" is the extension for Swedish websites.

A Man Called Ove's title in Swedish is En man som heter Ove while Britt-Marie Was Here was translated from Britt-Marie var här

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommends's Swedish title was Läsarna i Broken Wheel rekommenderar. Bivald also has a yet-to-be published title called Livet, motorcyklar och andra omöjliga projekt. It looks good!

And the answers are The Girl on the Train, Me Before You, and All The Light We Cannot See.
The Swedish Consulate is having a pub crawl for Katarina Bivald's event. You can check with them about details here.

We've got a table of Swedish favorites up, including not just Bivald and Backman, but Camille Läckberg, Stief Larsson, Jonas Jonasson, Helene Tursten, Stefan Spjut, and Fredrik Sjöberg.

And lastly, we are also selling Swedish rulers. They do not list Sweden's royalty, but they fold up nicely. Amie told me that as a child, she loved the way they clicked into place.