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Where can I find popular books written in Swedish or translations in Seattle?

I'm looking for Swedish books as a gift to a friend. I've tried to buy some online but most Swedish retailers won't ship to the US. Any recommendations from Swedish authors would also be appreciated.

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  • David_library_small

    Hey - I checked with Leszek - a world languages librarian who orders books in other languages quite a bit - about getting titles IN SWEDISH, and here's what he suggested (you may be surprised):

    "Good question and, I'm glad to add, I may have a good answer. In situations like these, I like to go to the powerhouse: Amazon.com where you can buy a new or used book. And they ship.

    To do a search, all you have to do is type in the search box: svenska (for Swedish) and limit your search to books. I've got 4,922 hits! And now make your selection. Of course, it always helps if you know author's name or a word from the title. Let's remember one thing: foreign-language materials can be easily found if we search in the target language, in this case Swedish. Let's hope this is going to work for you too."

    As far as translations go, that's a whole other thing. Right now the most popular thing coming over from Sweden is crime novels, following in the wake of the steadily successful Henning Mankell and now the dam bursting w/ Stieg Larsson. Of course I wouldn't recommend that unless you know they're a crime fiction fan. Searching the Novelist Plus database (available through many libraries via their online databases section) searching for Swedish Fiction I get a couple of hundred hits, most including reviews and sortable by genre, etc. Throwing in the word "starred" - a little trick for snagging only "starred" (or highly recommended) reviews, I still get 55, though almost every one of them is a crime novel - that's what's getting published (and reviewed) here, mostly.

    If you want a suggestions, Frans Bengtsson's The Long Ships was recently reprinted in a handsome paperback edition by NYRB Classics.

    They have also published a few titles by Swedish-Finnish novelist Tove Jansson, which are newer translations and really great - Fair Play, The True Deceiver, and The Summer Book. Other recent possibles are Jonas Kemiri's The Montecore, To Mervas by Elizabeth Rydell, The Saga of Gosta Berling by Selma Lagerlof, Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson, as well as teen titles by Per Nilsson and others. Again, I haven't listed translated crime novelists, of which there are several, and some truly excellent stuff - check out this list, which is about half Swedish.

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