FIRE – ENGELSFORS TRILOGY 2 (ELD)

Promo video (in Swedish)

The Chosen ones are about to start their second year in senior high school. The whole summer break they have held their breaths waiting for the demons’ next move. But the threat show up from another direction, somewhere they could never have foreseen.

It becomes more and more obvious that something is very, very wrong in Engelsfors. The past is woven together with the present. The living meet the dead. The Chosen ones are tied even closer together and are once again reminded that magic cannot ease unhappy love or mend broken hearts.

Fire is the second part in The Engelsfors Trilogy.

634 pages

RIGHTS

Belgium: A.W. Bruna
Brazil: Intrinseca
The Czech Republic: Fortuna Libri
Denmark: Gyldendal
Estonia: Varrak
The Faroe Islands: Bókadeildin Føroya Læraraferlags
Finland: Basam Books
France: Fleuve Editions
Germany: Cecilie Dressler Verlag
Hungary: Geopen
Iceland: Bjartur
Israel: Sela Publisher
Italy: Salani
Japan: East Press
Korea: Max Education
Latvia: Zvaigzne ABC Publishers
Lithuania: Nieko Rimto
The Netherlands: A.W. Bruna
Norway: Gyldendal
Poland: Czarna Owca
Russia: AST
Slovakia: Fortuna Libri
Spain: Maeva
Sweden: Rabén & Sjögren
Turkey: Yakamoz
UK: Random House
USA: The Overlook Press

REVIEWS

”Fire is in no way inferior to The Circle. The authors Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg pitch a tale with perfectly interwoven plot lines that offer heaps of choices how this trilogy  might end …”
Thüringische Landeszeitung / DE

“I have empathized with the action, I have been up all night, unable to break free from the reading and I’ve laughed out loud and I was moved to tears. I have kept the spirit of excitement, shouting straight into the air: ‘Oh, damn good!’ I cannot remember that ever happening before!
Svenska Dagladet / SWE

“Strandberg  &  B. Elfgren are not unique to weave the genre literature together with the Swedish realistic tradition, but they are among the absolute most compelling and talented in doing it. In Fire they continue to bind the dazzling magic and the gray everyday life, triumph and tragedy, in an alchemical formula that creates high-karat gold.”
Aftonbladet / SWE

“To get swept away from the first page, wanting to continue without interruption, to make the teen thoughts so universally human and alive, to make me swallow demons and witches in an average boring, average Swedish, average size small town, requires fluency in the language, thought and personal portraits. And that’s exactly what I get. The sequel to the success novel The Circle is if anything more direct and easier to turn the pages in. Even if in a different world than yours and mine, never the less it is fully present in the today that we know, as it is in the reality the demons around Engelsfors want to take over. Yes, I do look forward to part three.”
Kristianstadsbladet / SWE

“Apocalypse …? In a typical Swedish small town? Witches and demons, really? The concepts are not easy to write in the same sentence. And just that, the breakneck mix of floral fantasy and a soiled social realism, continues in this second part to be the backbone of the future trilogy. Author duo Mats Strandberg / Sara Bergmark Elfgren continue to write a sensible, mature and readable prose that stays beneficially calm regardless of whether it is about stinking exhumation, initial lesbian feelings or homicidal mass psychosis in the gymnastics hall.”
Dagens Nyheter / SWE

“Fervid picture of Sweden – and horribly exciting.”
Östgötacorrespondenten / SWE

“Like The Circle, Fire is a well-written and exciting novel. Despite its more than 600 pages it doesn’t feels long, but is a fast read and has a drive that makes you want to read on and on. This time I can only capitulate and admit that the writers really have managed to combine magic and teenage problems.”
Hallandsposten / SWE

“The authors skilfully juggle with different relationships and positions: gender, class, sexuality and ethnicity, rural, small town and big city, bulliers and bullied, self-thinking or brainwashed.”
Göteborgsposten / SWE

“When I read the last page, I was speechless. Despite that my expectations were higher than the house I live in, I was surprised.”
Litteraturmagazinet / SWE

“I devoured the new 633 pages brick-stone over a weekend.”
Sydsvenskan / SWE

“I encourage you to read the books. Preferably more than once.”
QX / SWE

“Fire is the longed for sequel to the fantasy/horror novel The Circle and the expectations that this acclaimed debut created is not easy to live up to. But the author duo Strandberg and Bergmark Elfgren do it splendidly.”
Skånska Dagbladet / SWE

“I was hesitant if Fire could actually live up to The Circle. It’s a book that is almost impossible to match. But it did, and it was even better.”
Tonårsboken / SWE

“The emotions are described in a striking manner, and without all the usual clichés.”
Blekinge Läns Tidning / SWE

“The driven story with the mission to save the world, drives the reader forward into the glorious love-to-read condition. At the same time, the more serious story with its recognizable problems, continues at a gentle pace, although it sometimes becomes extremely violent.”
Norrbottenkuriren / SWE

“The story of the events in Engelsfors is a tightly woven combination of the realistic and the fantastic. It is so easy to be drawn into the story, to recognize yourself, that the fantastic elements appear quite reasonable. Many times it is difficult to predict what is a normal everyday adversity, and what is due to the evil demons. Fire is, like its predecessor, The Circle, a craftsmanship. The construction of the Engelsfors world, does not feel a bit constructed and suddenly I have stretch read a book of 634 pages.”
Folkbladet / SWE

“The authors Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren let the characters develop gently, and have the feel for teenage language and teenage drama, but keep the romance short. The good thing is, however, not least the portrayal of social life. You get an insight into different types of home conditions, and see the hierarchies in a small enclosed community.”
Arbetarbladet / SWE

“The composition reminds of a mixer, in that a large number of subjects and themes, like a number of live stories and stages, ground down to fragments – to then be joined in a very rhythmic way. Fire convinces as stable ‘in-between-book’ and gives hope for a truly impressive finale.”
Borås tidning / SWE

“It is the credibility that is the strength of this book as well as its predecessor: it doesn’t just feed us with battles and magic, but primarily looks to anchor the indigestible events deep in the Bergslagen soil and genuine people. That is why we willingly buy the magical maneuvres, and that’s how the puzzling with signs and signals get bearing on our own ordinary lives: even without the magical elements, life is a range of contexts. That’s how also this well written book becomes a story that draws the reader in, and piece by piece builds up a tension that trembles as strong as the autumn heat of Engelsfors.”
Sundsvalls tidning / SWE

“I’m really not looking forward to the final book in the trilogy. I do not want the story to end.”
Bokhora, blog / SWE

“It will bea battle between good and evil, on life and death even in Fire. And when the drama finally arrives, it becomes so much more because The Choosen ones are my new best friends.”
Today’s book, blog / SWE

“I like that the fear for Engelfors’ doom, is mixed with more mundane problems with boyfriends, acidic neighbours, apathetic mothers and arguing parents. I like it so much more than ‘just’ fantasy. The girls get to know each other better in an unexpected way. I like how the writers try new approaches and manage to not only write a good sequel, but actually a book that stands on its own.”
According to O, blog / SWE