Festive books to get you in the mood for Christmas

Reading lists

Books to get you in the mood for Christmas

Festive Tales for a Nordic Noël

A Scandinavian Christmas

Ranging from Hans Christian Anderson to Karl Ove Knausgaard, have yourself a nordic noel with the very best Scandinavian Christmas tales 
 
Have yourself a truly Scandinavian Christmas... Of visions and prophesies seen in dark, dark woods. Of toys and trees come to life. Of trolls raising chaos, and of families torn apart -- only to be brought back together by festive cheer. 
 
In this collection, classic tales from Hans Christian Andersen and Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlof blend with modern day stories from Karl Ove Knausgaard and Vigdis Hjorth. Each touch on the warm and wild spirit of Christmas, where the cosiness and contentment of the season can often give way to the unexpected, magical and sometimes mystical. 
 
A smorgasbord of strange literary gifts, let A Scandinavian Christmas transport you to a winter wonderland in which fantasy, the fantastic and the festive combine for your reading delight. 
 
'These evocative, atmospheric tales...capture the spirit of Christmas' Sunday Express

These evocative, atmospheric tales...capture the spirit of Christmas

Sunday Express, *Christmas Gift Guide 2021*

A strange and beguiling series of stories, penned Scandinavia's literary greats, spanning three centuries... Beautifully decorated, this is a hardback any household would be proud to have adorn their coffee table

A hygge Christmas is assured with these folksy traditional and modern stories... Best enjoyed with a steaming glass of glögg

Saga Magazine, *Christmas Gift Guide 2021*

A gorgeous collection of classic tales from everyone from Hans Christian Anderson to Karl Ove Knausgaard. Magical tales of winter wonderlands of dark woods, you'll love this smorgasbord of festive short stories!

Hans Christian Andersen (Author) Hans Christian Andersen (April 2, 1805 - August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet, most famous for his fairy tales. Among his best-known stories are The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling and The Red Shoes. During Andersen's lifetime he was feted by royalty and acclaimed for having brought joy to children across Europe. His fairy tales have been translated into over 150 languages and continue to be published in millions of copies all over the world. Karl Ove Knausgaard (Author) Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world. From A Death in the Family to The End, the novels move through childhood into adulthood and, together, form an enthralling portrait of human life. Knausgaard has been awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Brage Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His work, which also includes the Seasons Quartet and the Morning Star series (The Morning Star, The Wolves of Eternity and The Third Realm) is published in thirty-five languages. Selma Lagerlöf (Author) Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a teacher in a girls' secondary school before she became a full-time writer. She is known around the world for her classic children's book The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson and she was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in 1909.

Ranging from Hans Christian Anderson to Karl Ove Knausgaard, have yourself a nordic noel with the very best Scandinavian Christmas tales 
 
Have yourself a truly Scandinavian Christmas... Of visions and prophesies seen in dark, dark woods. Of toys and trees come to life. Of trolls raising chaos, and of families torn apart -- only to be brought back together by festive cheer. 
 
In this collection, classic tales from Hans Christian Andersen and Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlof blend with modern day stories from Karl Ove Knausgaard and Vigdis Hjorth. Each touch on the warm and wild spirit of Christmas, where the cosiness and contentment of the season can often give way to the unexpected, magical and sometimes mystical. 
 
A smorgasbord of strange literary gifts, let A Scandinavian Christmas transport you to a winter wonderland in which fantasy, the fantastic and the festive combine for your reading delight. 
 
'These evocative, atmospheric tales...capture the spirit of Christmas' Sunday Express

Penguin Classics

The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson

'The book is grand, beautiful, exciting and poignant ... It is full of poetical phrasing ... yet allows for the naughty spirit of childhood to remain true' Guardian 
 
'Never before had Nils travelled around at such good speed, and he had always liked riding fast and wild ... Nor had he thought what it might be like to travel so high above the ground. But it was like flying away from worries and sorrows and annoyances of every imaginable kind' 
 
Nils Holgersson is a naughty boy who pulls the tails of cats and trips up his mother while she is carrying the milk pail. Then one day he discovers he has been magically turned into a tiny imp. He climbs on the back of a gander and takes off with a flock of wild geese as they fly over Sweden, soaring above patchwork fields, through storms, to castles and lakes and even to a city under the sea. As he learns about the world, he also learns what it means to care for living things, in Selma Lagerlöf's timeless and beloved fable.

A masterpiece... It showed me that a book could be an adventure

Among women novelists of great talent or genius, none, in my opinion, is to be placed higher than Selma Lagerlöf

Every book of this great storyteller keeps on bringing us astonishing examples of her art... No one in Europe can tell tales so unforgettably

I am a strange Japanese who spent his infancy and boyhood under the overwhelming influence of Nils Holgersson. So great was Nils' influence on me that there was a time I could name Sweden's beautiful locales better than those of my own country... The destination of the soul: this is what I, led on by Nils Holgersson, came to seek in the literature of Western Europe

Grand, beautiful, exciting and poignant... This wise, rich text is a welcome addition to Penguin's Classics series

Selma Lagerlöf (Author) Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a teacher in a girls' secondary school before she became a full-time writer. She is known around the world for her classic children's book The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson and she was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in 1909.

Nils Holgersson is a naughty boy who tortures animals and never listens to his parents - until one day he wakes up as an elf. Deeply puzzled by his new status, he climbs on a gander's back and flies away with him, joining a flock of wild geese. As he is carried around Sweden, Nils learns everything about birds, animals, his country and good behaviour. Incredibly charming and poignant, The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson is a timeless classic loved by generations of children around the world.

The Saga of Gösta Berling

Among [women novelists] of great talent or genius, none, in my opinion, is to be placed higher than Selma Lagerlof.

Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a teacher in a girls' secondary school before she became a full-time writer. She is known around the world for her classic children's book The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson and she was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in 1909.

One hundred years ago, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She assured her place in Swedish letters with this sweeping historical epic, her first and best-loved novel, and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo to stardom. Set in 1820s Sweden, it tells the story of a defrocked minister named Gösta Berling. After his appetite for alcohol and previous indiscretions end his career, Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate owned by Margareta Celsing, the "Majoress," that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. Berling's defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell against the backdrop of political intrigue at Margareta's estate and the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden.

Selma Lagerlöf

Peter Graves

Sarah Death

Linda Schenck

Available for the first time in English, this collection of winter and Christmas tales by Swedish schoolteacher Selma Lagerlöf is a definition of festive: a blend of folklore, fables and fairytales, told in a lucid observational style that’s as clear as a cloudless December sky. Lagerlöf, who in 1909 became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has been dead for more than 80 years, but these stories are timeless

‘But what shall I do on Christmas night if nobody has given me a book?’ 
 
A little girl receives a gift to treasure; the creatures of the forest gather to celebrate the New Year; an evil noblewoman schemes against her beautiful niece; a cantankerous gravedigger dines with an unexpected companion on Christmas Eve… 
 
In this enchanting selection of winter stories, now available in English for the first time, the beloved writer Selma Lagerlöf weaves together magic and miracles, Swedish folklore and timeless fables, darkness and light, heartfelt joy and festive wonder.

Selma Lagerlöf

Praise for A Book for Christmas

Among women novelists of great talent or genius, none, in my opinion, is to be placed higher than Selma Lagerlöf

Available for the first time in English, this collection of winter and Christmas tales by Swedish schoolteacher Selma Lagerlöf is a definition of festive: a blend of folklore, fables and fairytales, told in a lucid ...

Books by Selma Lagerlöf

Series by Selma Lagerlöf

Vintage Christmas Tales

Articles featuring Selma Lagerlöf

Books to get you in the mood for Christmas

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