Want Books is a weekly meme hosted by Chachic's Book Nook. It features released books that you want but you can’t have for some reason. It can be because it’s not available in your country, in your library or you don’t have the money for it right now. Everyone is free to join, just grab the image above. Make sure to leave a comment at Chachic's Book Nook with a link to your post so I can do a roundup with each post.
~Taken from Chachic's Book Nook
I've been tweeting with Chachic for a few weeks about her difficulties at finding certain books that seem to only be available in the U.S. When I told her that she was not alone and that I actually had a book that I really wanted to read but the book wasn't available in English, she was intrigued. So here it is...I really want to read the Harry Hole novels by Jo Nesbø but the first book, Der Flagermusmannen (The Bat Man) is not available in English. In fact, the second book in the series, Kakkerlakkene (Cockroaches) is not available in English either! The first book available in the U.S. is the third novel in the series, The Redbreast (Rødstrupe). I am scratching my head as to why they would print the series in English only part-way through the series!
Has anyone read these books? Is it ok to start at the third book, The Redbreast (Rødstrupe)?
**UPDATE**
So in my haste to post this yesterday, I misspelled the name of "Flaggermusmannen" and ended up with the German translation of the book, "Der Fledermausmann". Yes, that was dumb of me (because German and Norwegian...two VERY different languages) and I am now hanging my head in shame. I am so sorry!
Here is the Norwegian cover:
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9 comments:
YAY, thanks for joining my Want Books meme! Goodness, those titles sound complicated. Where did you find out about them and what are they about? Although I'm not entirely sure I'd want to read a book entitled Cockroaches.
On Amazon.com, the Publisher's Weekly review of The Redbreast is this:
"Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian Nesbø (The Devil's Star) spins a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality. But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it's up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches. Perfectly paced and painfully suspenseful, this crime novel illuminates not only Norway's alleged Nazi ties but also its present skinhead subculture. Readers will delight in Hole, a laconic hero as doggedly stubborn as Connelly's Harry Bosch, and yet with a prickly appeal all his own." (Dec.)
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I heard about a later book in the series called Nemesis and wanted to read it. When I found out it was a series, I wanted to start at the beginning but apparently the books are only published in English from Book 3 on. Sad! I wanted to find other Scandinavian authors after I read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because I liked it so much and there will be no more books from Stieg Larsson. :(
Is the first cover the German one+ Der Fledermausmann is definitely German. Hm, not sure about I'd be drawn to the titles either. Never heard of them though, I have to check them out.
I agree, only releasing the third book in a series makes no sense whatsoever.
@Rikki - I was wondering myself because it looked more German than Norwegian to me. He's a Norwegian writer though and Kakerlakkene looks very Norwegian to me! Hehe. I can't find English copies of either though. Maybe if the other books sell well enough they will translate them and sell them here.
Yes, I checkd on amazon, it's definitely the German one. The publisher is Ullstein, you can even see it on the cover. The other two books are called Kakerlaken (I don't think I'd ever buy that one) and Rotkehlchen (which sounds kinda cute). Obviously there are six books out so far in that series.
It is weird that they translate the third installment in a series to English, but not the first two.
Sounds very silly to only translate the third one. What bozo is in charge of that decision?
You'll either have to wait and be patient - maybe write a furious letter off to the publisher...
Or learn German.
It does make me curious how many books there must be out there - that are not in English. Unfortunately I'm absolutely dreadful with languages so I'm stuck!
The only Nesbo that I have read is The Devil's Star and that one has the same detective. I didn't even realize that it was a series at the time, so you can definitely read them out of order. While it probably could add to the story, it isn't going to detract from them.
Have you seen his website? Tres cool!
http://www.jonesbo.com/
He has taken off so I bet Harper will publish the first ones in English soon.
@Gwen - I hope so! I really want to start his books. I did look at his website to see if they were printed in English, but no dice! Hopefully soon!
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