Posts from — June 2008

Jan (Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri) Guillou is one of Sweden’s most famous authors. His Coq Rouge-novels, a series of books about the Swedish secret agent Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, the Scandinavian James Bond, have been translated into some 15 languages.

Carl Hamilton has special training in FBI and US Navy. He comes from the Swedish aristocracy, but he is also a former leftist, opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s and was a member of the Maoist Clarté group.

A high ranking officer in the Swedish Secret police is shot in Stockholm. The authorities are confused. Who is behind the execution?

Carl Hamilton, who has officially studied political science in California, but has in reality been trained as a Navy Seal, and a spy, is assigned the case. His is assigned the code name Coq Rouge. This is his first big case, with a trail that goes to Oslo, Beirut, Lillehammer, Israel, and Iran. This is the first book in the series about Hamilton.

Coq Rouge is a great read, with an interesting plot, and a wonderful start on the fabulous series of books about Count Hamilton. One of the best international spy series in modern time, in the same class as LeCarrè. All of the books, and this one as well, are extremely exciting, with lots of action and rapidly unfolding plots. Coq Rogue is a wonderful read.

For some or other reason, the books in this series are hard to find in English, and a number of them are currently selling for USD 100 or more from private sellers on various internet sites.

Also by Jan Guillou: The Knight Templar (Crusades Trilogy), (historical novels) another great series!

Order from amazon UK: Coq Rouge., The Road to Jerusalem (Crusades Trilogy), and The Knight Templar (Crusades Trilogy).

(Norwegian title: Før du sovner.) Before You Sleep was originally written in Norwegian. While it was not viewed as controversial in Norway, American reviewers have regarded it as a “detailed and sexually frank novel.” Such labels aside, Before You Sleep is a great and strong story of a Norwegian family, Blom, with strong and also somewhat eccentric women, that spans several generations. The story moves from Oslo to Brooklyn, both places well known to the author.

The story is complicated. It is told, over time, from the mouth of one of the key characters in the book, Karin.
It is about relations inside and out of the family, about motherhood, marriage, emotions, love, and even infidelity.

Before You Sleep is an exceptional debut book. It is very well worth reading. Linn Ullman tells her story in a way that makes the characters come alive, and make you sympathize with their strange actions and understand their emotions.

“Of this autumns literary output, novelist Linn Ullmann is the wickedest and wittiest, and because she writes with a silent sincerity and merges all this with wit, intelligence and a generous picture of human beings, the novel is a real pleasure to read.”

CECILIE WINGER,
FÆDRELANDSVENNEN (Norway)

“Before You Sleep is infernally well written. The debutante, Linn Ullmann, has, from page one, found her own form and language, consistent in style until the end.”

GT (Sweden)