The matriarch of a wealthy Norwegian dynasty commits suicide on the family estate. Her unpublished memoirs about the family's trauma - a wartime ship disaster that killed her husband and hundreds of others - are missing. Her granddaughter embarks on a journey to find the manuscript. Aided by a discredited secret agent with his motives, they wind up the family's labyrinthian past - a dark and dramatic story of secrets, betrayals, and doomed love. The Sea Cemetery is a literary thriller, a sweeping family saga, and a colourful drama about power and inheritance inspired by the great tales from the 19th century as well as modern tv series. Distinctly set in Norway, exploring universally human issues, the novel ends in a fateful final voyage along the stunningly scenic Norwegian coast. The quest to uncover the truth 75 years later converges in the shipwreck on the bottom of the sea 300 meters below the surface - where the shocking truth lies buried ...

"Love, suspense, nature and superstition are woven together in this powerful novel" MAJA LUNDE, author of The History of Bees "Lars Mytting writes with an insight, empathy and integrity few others can match" JO NESBO "An exquisitely atmospheric novel . . . The Bell in the Lake does what fiction promises: to steal you away to another world and ask you, if unfairly, to leave a little of your heart behind" DEREK B. MILLER, author of Norwegian by Night "Lyrical, melancholy and with beautifully drawn characters, this pitches old beliefs against new ways with a haunting delicacy that rings true." DAILY MAIL THE TIMES' "Historical Fiction Book of the Month" The first in a rich historical trilogy that draws on legend, by a literary craftsman and the author of The Sixteen Trees of the Somme Norway, 1880. Winter is hard in Butangen, a village secluded at the end of a valley. The lake has frozen, and for months the ground is too hard to bury the dead. Astrid Hekne dreams of a life beyond all this, beyond marriage, children, and working the land to the end of her days. Then Pastor Kai Schweigaard takes over the small parish, with its 700-year-old stave church carved with pagan deities. The two bells in the tower were forged by Astrid's forefather in the sixteenth century, in memory of conjoined twins Halfrid and Gunhild Hekne. They are said to hold supernatural powers. The villagers are wary of the pastor and his resolve to do away with their centuries-old traditions, though Astrid also finds herself drawn to him. And then a stranger arrives from Dresden, with grand plans for the church itself. For headstrong Astrid this may be a provocation too far. Talented architecture student Gerhard Schoenauer is an improbable figure in this rugged community. Astrid has never met anyone like him; he seems so different, so sensitive. She finds that she must make a choice: for her homeland and the pastor, or for an uncertain future in Germany. Then the bells begin to ring . . . Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin Deborah Dawkin originally trained in theatre at Drama Centre, London, before turning to translation. Her translations include The Blue Room by Hanne Orstavik and Buzz Aldrin: What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad, shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Awards in 2012. She is the co-translator of eight plays by Ibsen for Penguin Classics. With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

"Lars Mytting writes with an insight, empathy and integrity few others can match" JO NESBO The Reindeer Hunters is the second in a thrilling historical trilogy that began with The Bell in the Lake. The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since Astrid Hekne died in childbirth. Her son Jehans lives on a modest smallholding up in the hills near Butangen, having withdrawn from his community. He is drawn to freedom, to fishing and reindeer hunting, and one day meets a stranger over the body of a huge reindeer buck. Outside the new church in Butangen, Pastor Kai Schweigaard still cares for Astrid Hekne's grave. The village's overworked priest is tormented by his old betrayal, which led to death and to the separation of two powerful church bells cast in memory of two sisters in Astrid's family. Kai is set on finding an ancient tapestry made by the sisters - the Hekne Weave - in the hope that it will reveal how he can remedy his iniquities. Conceived on an epic scale by Norway's bestselling author, The Reindeer Hunters is a novel about love and bitter rivalries, sorrow and courage, about history and myth, and a country as it enters a new era, about the first electric light and the Great War in Europe, where brother stands against brother. Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin

Four of Ibsen's most important plays in superb modern translations, part of the new Penguin Ibsen series. In these four unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the complex nature of truth, the tension between freedom and responsibility, and the terrible pull that the past exerts over the present. In The Wild Duck, an idealist destroys a family by exposing the lie behind his friend's marriage. In Rosmersholm, a respectable man is driven to extremes by guilt over his wife's death, while in The Lady from the Sea a woman is caught between her family and the enticement of the wild sea. And in Hedda Gabler, one of Ibsen's most famous and vivid anti-heroines struggles to break free from the conventional life she has created for herself, with tragic results. The new Penguin series of Ibsen's major plays offer the best available editions in English, under the general editorship of Tore Rem. The plays have been freshly translated by the best modern translators and are based on the recently published, definitive Norwegian edition of Ibsen's works. They all include new introductions and editorial apparatus by leading scholars. Vol. 1: Peer Gynt and Brand Vol. 2: A Doll's House and Other Plays Vol. 3: Hedda Gabler and Other Plays Vol. 4: The Master Builder and Other Plays

A novel about a mother-daughter relationship that will send a chill down your spine. Johanne is a young woman in her twenties who lives with her mother. When she falls in love with Ivar, she finally feels ready to leave home. The couple plan a trip to America. But the morning of her departure, Johanne wakes up to find the door locked. Can she overcome her fears? Will she shout for help? Will she climb out of her fourth floor window? ------ Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'Everyone who has read Fifty Shades of Grey should read this book. Why? The Blue Room holds up a mirror to a part of the female psyche that yearns for submission. The story shows how erotic fantasies are formed by the relationship with our parents. It then delves further to analyse the struggle of women to separate from their mothers - a struggle that is rarely addressed in either literature or society.' Meike Ziervogel, Publisher

"Lars Mytting writes with an insight, empathy and integrity few others can match" JO NESBO The Reindeer Hunters is the second in a thrilling historical trilogy that began with The Bell in the Lake. The year is 1903, and twenty-two years have passed since Astrid Hekne died in childbirth. Her son Jehans lives on a modest smallholding up in the hills near Butangen, having withdrawn from his community. He is drawn to freedom, to fishing and reindeer hunting, and one day meets a stranger over the body of a huge reindeer buck. Outside the new church in Butangen, Pastor Kai Schweigaard still cares for Astrid Hekne's grave. The village's overworked priest is tormented by his old betrayal, which led to death and to the separation of two powerful church bells cast in memory of two sisters in Astrid's family. Kai is set on finding an ancient tapestry made by the sisters - the Hekne Weave - in the hope that it will reveal how he can remedy his iniquities. Conceived on an epic scale by Norway's bestselling author, The Reindeer Hunters is a novel about love and bitter rivalries, sorrow and courage, about history and myth, and a country as it enters a new era, about the first electric light and the Great War in Europe, where brother stands against brother. Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin

Mattias is a 30-something gardener living in Norway, whose idol is Buzz Aldrin. Following a series of personal and professional disasters, Mattias finds himself lying on a rain-soaked road in the Faroe Islands with a pocket full of cash, when a truck approaches him driven by a fantastic man with an offer that will change his life.

There is no love lost between the Oslo and Bergen branches of the powerful Falck family. So when its steely matriarch dies with no will to be found, the seeds of an inheritance dispute are sown.

Yet her legacy could be more damaging still. A manuscript confiscated by the secret police in the seventies holds devastating secrets about the Falcks' activities during the war. Her granddaughter Sasha is set on uncovering the truth, whatever the cost, bringing her into conflict with her father, whose family loyalty is matched only by his patriotic fervour. And in the wings waits Hans Falck, war doctor and philanderer, head of the impoverished Bergen branch, who has a few secrets of his own.

It all leads back to the sinking of the SS Prinsesse Ragnhild, lost to a British mine in 1940. But can the official verdict be trusted? The shocking truth lies 300 metres under the sea.

Part literary thriller, part sweeping family saga, The Sea Cemetery is a dark and dramatic tale of secrets, betrayals and doomed love, drawing on the true story of one of Norway's most devastating maritime disasters.

An absorbing biography of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Knut Hamsun, based on a wealth of previously unavailable sources Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, was a man both brilliant and controversial. Lauded for his literary achievements by Hemingway, Gide, Hesse, and others, he also provoked outrage for his open collaboration with the Fascists during the German occupation of Norway and for his insistent refusal to renounce his Nazi sympathies. This gripping biography of Hamsun, now available for the first time in English, offers a nuanced account of this morally ambiguous man. Drawing on Hamsun's extraordinary private archives and on his psychoanalyst's notes, Ingar Sletten Kolloen delves deeply into Hamsun's personal life and character. In vivid and telling detail, he describes Hamsun's early years in a peasant farming family, his tempestuous and jealousy-racked second marriage, his erratic relationship with his children, and his infamous love affair with Nazi Germany, the roots of which Kolloen traces to Hamsun's earliest days. Much like the characters he created in novels such as Hunger, Growth of the Soil, Mysteries, and Pan, Hamsun was irrational, eccentric, strange, and compelling-a man uncomfortable in his own time.

"A touching, contemplative chronicle of loss and self-discovery." - Publishers Weekly From the acclaimed biographer of Norway's most treasured cultural icons, Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Munch, comes a story of a migrant family in search of roots and for each other. Ivo de Figueiredo's lyrical and imagistic memoir navigates a difficult search for the origins of his estranged father, which opens a door to a family history spanning four continents, five centuries and the rise and fall of two empires. At the age of 45, Figueiredo traces his father's family in the diaspora. Having emigrated from the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India to British East Africa, and later to the West, his father's ancestors were Indians with European ways and values-trusted servants of the imperial powers. But in postcolonial times they became homeless, redundant, caught between the age of empires and the age of nations. With lush descriptions and forthcoming honesty, A Stranger at My Table tells the story of a family unwittingly tied to two European empires, who paid the price for their downfall, weathering revolution and many forms of prejudice. The author's trove of often-strange photographs, letters and recordings as well as his eye for the smallest details and double-meanings lead the reader down a mysterious path as his search for his family's heritage results in a surprising reunification with his father and reconciliation with his past. Praise for Henrik Ibsen. The Man and the Mask, 2019 Ivo de Figueiredo's work marks the high point in the long line of biographies of Ibsen that have been published since 1888. - Dagbladet This Ibsen-biography shares the quality of its subject: It is unsurpassable. [...] Anybody with the slightest interest in literature should indulge in a meeting with the most important Norwegian contribution to world literature: The works of Henrik Ibsen. Outside of the plays themselves, there is no better place to start than Ivo de Figueiredo's two books, "The Man" (2006) and "The Mask" (2007). - Klassekampen A jubilant outcry ... it is this literary composition that makes Ivo de Figueiredo revise our understanding of Ibsen. - Dag Solstad Praise for Sleeping Sinner, The Kober Case. A true story of spiritualism, love and a possible murder, 2010 The book is so well written that I almost forgot that it was a book. It resembles a film or a court case. Figueiredo's trick is to focus on the unsolved parts of the case [...] Figueiredo deserves gratitude and admiration. - Aftenposten Wonderfully fascinating reading. Exciting like a crime novel, but from real life. - Varden Electrifyingly well written. The historian and writer, Ivo de Figueiredo, stylistically just gets better and better [...] It is like a thriller you cannot put down. - VG+

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? opens with the line: "The person you love is 72.8% water, and it hasn't rained for weeks." From there, Brage Award-winning author and playwright Johan Harstad's debut--previously published to great success in eleven countries and now making its first English-language appearance--tells the story of Mattias, a thirty-something gardener living in Stavanger, Norway, whose idol is Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon: the man who was willing to stand in Neil Armstrong's shadow in order to work, diligently and humbly, for the success of the Apollo 11 mission. Following a series of personal and professional disasters, Mattias finds himself lying on a rain-soaked road in the desolate, treeless Faroe Islands, population only a few thousand, a wad of bills in his pocket and no memory of how he had come to be there--that's when a truck approaches him, driven by a troubled, fantastic man with an offer that will shortly change Mattias's life. And so, surrounded by a vivid and memorable cast of characters--aspiring pop musicians, Caribbean-obsessed psychologists, death-haunted photographers, girls who dream of anonymous men falling in love with them on bus trips, and even Buzz Aldrin himself--launches Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All The Confusion?, the epic story of Mattias's pop-saturated odyssey through the world of unconventional psychiatry, souvenir sheep-making, the Cardigans, and space: the space between himself and other people, a journey maybe as remote and personally dangerous as the trip to the moon itself.

Four of Ibsen’s most important plays in superb modern translation: A Doll's House, Ghosts, Pillars of the Community, An Enemy of the People.

With her assertion that she is “first and foremost a human being,” rather than a wife, mother or fragile doll, Nora Helmer sent shockwaves throughout Europe when she appeared in Henrik Ibsen’s greatest and most famous play, A Doll’s House. Ibsen’s follow-up, Ghosts, was no less radical, with its unrelenting investigation into religious hypocrisy, family secrets, and sexual double-dealing. These two masterpieces are accompanied here by The Pillars of Society and An Enemy of the People, both exploring the tensions and dark compromises at the heart of society.

'Brilliant and breathtaking...sexy and sad' A.M. Homes In his struggle to understand what has happened to his family, how his wife could fall in love with another man after twenty happy years, Jon attempts to tell the story of the painful collapse of his marriage, but from her point of view. He tries to get inside her head, to see it all as she did, all the while knowing that he can never really achieve this, and that his efforts reveal more projection than insight. How can one truly know another person? How much of what we think is love, is just a construct? Is it possible to find - and maintain - the great love we long for? Gulliksen explores these questions, turning them over again and again till they crack, revealing hollowness - or possible new meanings. Intense, erotic, dramatic, raw - Story of a Marriage examines two people's inner lives with devastating and fearless honesty. It is a gripping but slippery narrative of obsession and deceit, of a couple striving for happiness and freedom and intimacy, but ultimately falling apart.