The Annika Bengtzon books: Liza Marklund translated by Neil Smith

I am very grateful to Neil Smith for this information about his new translations of Liza Marklund’s superb series about journalist Annika Bengtzon. He very kindly commented on an old post but I thought it was worth posting here in case readers had missed his comment. There are also links to my reviews of Paradise and Red Wolf.

Transworld / Corgi now have the rights to all of the Annika Bengtzon books apart from Prime Time, and for various reasons decided to commission new translations of the first three books in the series (in order of publication) rather than reprint the existing translations. But rather than launch their new acquisition with a story that might already be familiar to crime aficionados, they went for Red Wolf, the first untranslated book (as Maxine mentioned above). Since Red Wolf, I’ve been gradually working my way through the whole series – it’s a great pleasure to be able to give them a ‘uniform voice’ for the first time, and to be able to work closely with Liza to make sure that the translations reflect her vision for the books as best they can.

But all of this does mean that there is now a third way to list the books, alongside chronological order and the order of publication in Sweden. To complicate matters further, two of the earlier books have also been renamed by Transworld for UK publication, although these may not make it to the US in the new translations and under their new titles! 

The list currently looks like this, in order of narative chronology:

1] Exposed – Sw. Studio sex, previously Studio 69 (new translation published May 2011).
2] Vanished – Sw. Paradiset, previously Paradise (new translation publ. March 2012).
(3] Prime Time – remains in the original translation.)
4] The Bomber – Sw. Sprängaren (new translation publ. November 2011).
5] Red Wolf – Sw. Röda vargen (translation publ. October 2010).
6] ‘Last Will’ (provisional title) – Sw. Nobels testamente (translation publ. March 2012).
7] ‘Lifetime’ (prov.) – Sw. Livstid (translation publ. October 2012).
8] ‘A Place in the Sun’ (prov.) – Sw. En plats i solen (translation publ. 2013).
9] as yet untitled new book (translation publ. 2013).

That’s probably more information than you’ll ever need, but it might come in useful at some point!

Thanks very much Neil, it has.

Hope

I do not believe that this drift into anarchy can only be prevented by a collapse into totalitarianism.

Time and time again in history ordinary people have risen up to remove far worse menaces than these pathetic gangs of feral bullies.

During the last couple of days we have seen a small glimmer of hope amid the destruction of property, and the tragic loss of life. Not from the politicians blustering on about things that in reality will never be done, but ordinary people rising above the chaos to show concern for their fellow human beings and their cities.

The roll of honour includes Tariq Jahan, whose son Haroon, was killed during the disturbances in Birmingham, managing to calm the situation and begging his community not to exact revenge for his tragic loss. The armies of volunteers, of all ages, cleaning up the damage with brooms, and rubbish bags,  showing their devotion to their areas. The exhausted policemen and women who along with the fire service, and ambulance service, have been working in harms way over the past few days. And the hundreds of thousands of people struggling to go to work, and back home, in very difficult circumstances. Let us hope we can turn our society around, and make it clear that we the people, that silent and ignored majority, have had enough.  

We are not interested in fighting in Libya and Afghanistan, or the phone hacking of ‘celebrities’ phones, or even Ruritanian style Royal Weddings, all we want is our society repaired, and right now. 

MISS MARPLE MAY APPEAR 6

England is still a green and pleasant land if you know where to go. Miss Marple might not own this beautiful house, but perhaps she would visit wealthy friends and solve any local murders.