THE ANNIKA BENGTZON NOVELS
Here at Crime Scraps HQ I am frequently confused, but I do have certain old fashioned standards.
Boring standards such as reviewers reading the books they review, and publishers playing fair with their customers.
I know I am not a time traveller so I was surprised to read at the back of my copy of Red Wolf by Liza Marklund that her gripping new thriller, The Bomber, will be available in the Spring of 2011. New????
I am sure I read this book in English some years ago before I started blogging? The Bomber was published in English in 2002/2003, and is certainly not a new thriller.
Here are the Annika Bengtzon books in chronological order, along with their dates of publication in Sweden.
1] Studio 69 [1999]- action takes place 8 years before The Bomber.
2] Paradise [2000]- takes place after Studio 69.
3] Prime Time [2002]- action takes place after Paradise.
4] The Bomber [1998]
5] Red Wolf [2003] -action takes place after The Bomber.
6] Nobel's testamente [2006]- action takes place after Red Wolf.
7] Livstid [2007] a sequel to Nobel's testamente.
8] En plats i solen [2008] sequel to Livstid
Books 6,7, and 8 have yet to be translated into English.
Author Liza Marklund along with Malin Crepin who will play Annika Bengtzon in Yellow Bird's film /TV versions of the novels.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 12:14 PM
14 Comments:
Norman - I don't think you area confused about that at all. I read The Bomber in English, too. Perhaps it'll be available in paperback or in some new edition, but I agree: accuracy is a good thing.
Clearly her publishers are splitting time into BJP and AJP and I am guessing that anything occurring BJP is now considered never to have happened so that they can make mega bucks in the post AJP world. I'm sure they're giving it a snazzy new cover and a fancy new "an exciting new thriller from the author who brought you postcard killers with JP...."
I think this is another publishers' hype like so-and-so is "THE NEXT STIEG LARSSON."
Readers probably are more likely to buy a new book. Also, the earlier versions are sold out: See the Book Depository, which says "out of stock" for earlier publications of "The Bomber," but advertises a July, 2011 publication.
Maybe it requires a "Hamlet" advertisement. "New in 2011: a reincarnation of a 1998 murder, by Liza Marklund, the next Stieg Larsson."
You know what I mean.
I want to read her books, but my library does not have any of Marklund's book in English--a few in Italian! Actually, I'm wrong; they have "Postcard Killers," which I refuse to read on principle, given the co-author and that hype.
Thanks Margot, Bernadette, and Kathy for your comments.
The only good thing about the JP/Liza Marklund association, and "Next Stieg Larsson" marketing is that it provides material for grumbling old bloggers like me.
I might start running a regular "Reminiscent of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson" feature. Frankly I would not be surprised if Henning Mankell's next book has a "If you liked Stieg Larsson you will love this" sticker on it.
Some days publishers make me feel OLD! All the things we have read and not forgotten yet.
Norman, Liza Marklund was dropped by her UK publisher after her fourth novel was translated. Some years have elapsed and now she has been picked up by a new publisher, who has bought the rights to the out-of-print backlist. The new publisher started off with Red Wolf, the next one in the series that had not yet been translated. Then it is going on with the rest of the backlist, as well as the other new as-yet untranslated ones.
Interestingly, Marklund wrote the first four books out of chronological order, which makes them all the cleverer! But now, with Red Wolf, the series has got itself onto a linear track.
The Bomber extract annoyed me, too! I notice that Marklund has now moved from Simon & Schuster to Corgi, and Red Wolf was brought to us by her third translator in five titles, Neil Smith. I can't find anything to say whetehr or not the new version of The Bomber is the 2000 translation by Kajsa von Hofsten.
I am trying to get round to reviewing Red Wolf myself, perhaps with a side essay on swearing. The Annika of Red Wolf uses stronger words than I remember in earlier novels, and I think this is down to the translation. From what I gather, Swedish expletives tend to be softer, and derived from religion rather than sex, which can make some reasonably innocuous comments sound quite shocking in some translations. This is noticeable in the BBC4 Wallanders which carry a strong language warning that might be merited by the English subtitles for spoken words that aren't particularly offensive in Swedish.
Think of the vast opportunities for humor out of all this.
You could really go to town, not to mention the whole craziness about what books are translated in what order.
People are reading what they think is the first book in a series; it's the third. The first two weren't translated yet.
Aaaaauuuugh!
I'd like to offer two comments: Amazon lists the Bomber as having been published in May 2001. They offer the book today on Kindle and through their affiliated booksellers: $5.88 used and from $114.85 new (same price from 3 different sellers, slightly higher from three others). I wonder how much a signed first edition by Dickens goes for?
My second comment is that I noticed when I red the Bomber that the storyline chronology and the publishing dates don't sync up, a bit of an annoyance, especially in the case of an author who's early books are not easily available. However, I have since discovered John Lawton, a superior writer in my humble estimation, who also does not follow a linear storyline. Matter of fact, some of his books leapfrog events in others, meaning that one book may focus on the early 50's while another starts in the 40's then jumps to the late 50's. And it works! It works brilliantly. Along the way, one member of the supporting cast died in the book I was reading, then I found this person as a key character in a subsequent book - haunting.
I don't care enough for Marklund yet to bother with her earlier books yet. I'll try Red Wolf and see what happens.
While we're at it about translations and publishing, do you know what happened to Kjell Eriksson's works?
Three of his books were translated and published in the U.S., which I read.
Now I see that he has written others but they haven't been translated, and it doesn't appear that they will be.
He is an excellent writer--characters, plot, story, that can't putdownable quality.
Anyone know anything?
I don't know anything future translations but maybe one of the other members of the forum can help. Kjell Eriksson came in just behind the Swedish writers of the decade Roslund-Hellstrom, Hakan Nesser, and Stieg Larsson who had 8 points, with a creditable 7.
He won the Basta Svenska in 2002, and was nominated in 2000,2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
I think Kjell Eriksson was another author whose books were translated out of order.
just to note to Ken and others, that in this case, Liza M actually wrote her novels out of chronological order. They were translated in written order, which is not the same as has sadly happened to so many other authors whose work is translated.
You are right about Nesser and Eriksson being translated out of order, Norman. Also Ake Edwardson, Lief Davidsen, jo Nesbo, and probably many others.
PS Sorry, just saw Kathy's comment. Eriksson was never translated in the UK, only in US editions. I did hear that he can't get any more translated after the first three (all of which I have read, and rather liked).
That is puzzling to me why Eriksson can't get any more books translated.
He is a good writer.
Maybe his books didn't sell as well in the U.S. as the publishers/distributors wanted--i.e., the next Stieg Larsson.
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