Sweden Introduces YA Authors Kadefors, Thor to U.S. Market
By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 11/25/2009
Authors Sara Kadefors and Annika Thor may not be household names in the United States. But representatives in their native Sweden are hoping to change that.
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From left: Sara Kadefors, Alf Karlsson, and Annika Thor. |
Kadefors’s young adult novel Are U 4 Real? (Dial, 2009) tells the story of two 16-year-olds who unexpectedly befriend each other in an online chat room and grow closer as they share feelings of isolation and frustration with their conformity-obsessed high school. The book, originally published as Sandor Slash Ida (Bonnier Carlsen, 2001), was published in 10 languages, made into a feature film, and listed as one of Sweden’s all-time best-selling YA novels. In 2001, Kadefors was awarded the August Prize, Sweden's equivalent of the National Book Award.
Thor is one of Sweden's most successful children and YA authors. Her A Faraway Island (Delacorte, 2009) is the first of four books about Stephie and Nellie, two young Jewish sisters from Vienna who are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis in 1939. Nominated for an August Prize in 1996, the book has received great critical acclaim in Sweden and was adapted into a popular television program.
"Only 3 percent of all books published in the United States are translated from other languages. And only a fraction of them are books for children and young adults. So it's unusual for a country as small as Sweden to have two YA novels on the U.S. market in a given year," says Niklas Arnegren, public affairs officer at the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.
Thor says she’s pleased with the book’s translation by Linda Schenck, a U.S. native lives in Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden and where the story takes place. However, Kadefars was disappointed that the translation by Tara Cace had her characters living in California rather than Sweden and toned down the sex and drinking by Kyla, the lead female character.
Kadefars’ editor, Alisha Niehaus, says the changes were made because, “It was felt that keeping the book set in Sweden might distant U.S. readers” and that Kyla “needed to be softened.”
Arnegren, who arranged the event, says one of the roles of the Consulate General is to promote Swedish culture and introducing these authors to U.S. librarians fit right in.
