THE CONFERENCE (KONFERENSEN)

A team-building retreat turns into a nightmare when a group of co-workers find themselves trapped with a killer.

A group of municipal employees arrive at a picturesque conference centre on the shores of Lake Kolarsjön, nestled beneath a mountain. Their assignment is simple: discuss a controversial development project that has divided both the town and their workplace. Tensions are already running high when an unseen figure begins watching them from across the lake.

As darkness falls, the first person disappears.

Cut off from the outside world and surrounded by colleagues they neither trust nor particularly like, the group is forced into a desperate fight for survival. But as old grudges, rivalries, and secrets surface, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish friend from foe.

The Conference is a blood-soaked thriller and razor-sharp workplace satire about the people we never choose but spend most of our lives with: our colleagues. With unforgettable characters, dark humour, and relentless suspense, Mats Strandberg turns the corporate retreat from hell into a brilliantly entertaining nightmare.

334 pages

Rights

Czech Republic: Dobrovsky
Denmark: Modtryk
Finland: Like
Germany: Fischer
Poland: Stara Szkola
Sweden: Norstedts

Film

Original Netflix movie, produced by SF Studio

BLURB:

”Mats Strandberg’s greatness lies in the love and care with which he creates the characters that inhabit his dark world – but he is just as good at killing them.”
Niklas Natt och Dag (1793 The Wolf and the Watchman)

REVIEWS

“The Conference made me try to shut my eyes while reading. I say that with horror and joy.”
Jessica Gedin, Babel, Swedish Television / SWE

“Effective as well as detailed is also Strandberg’s narrative, and the book is simply extremely exciting.”
Expressen / SWE

“Last night, something wonderful happened that otherwise only happens in clichés, namely that I had to put down a book and breathe in a square because it was freaking TOO exciting.”
Jenny Lind, DN / SWE

“After an interesting and fairly accurate presentation of all the group members, the book went took off dizzying pace and the plot became, to say the least, gasping. The author in this book has not worked with the rough brushstrokes, no here it is a story that goes into details and the whole story is very , colorful both of the personalities, the environment and the plot. When the book was over, despite the gasping feeling, I also felt a bit of a loss. I was struck by the fact that the author must have done a solid research of municipal / political activities in general and exploitation activities in particular.”
Anita Wallin, City of Lund / SWE

“The Conference is horror literature at its best. The horror becomes a way of bringing life to history, and portray the existential questions …”
VLT /SWE

”The Conference is a lovely adrenaline rush – but just like all drugs, it disappears quickly. What remains are the people. I suddenly discover that I am thinking of Lina, Torbjörn and the others while I’m making dinner several days after I have finished listening. Thinking that they have got something that should be bestowed on all fictional characters – a writer who really cares about them. All the way to death.”
Jönköpingsposten / SWE

”Strandberg fully masters the horror thriller set-up. It will be a bloody and exciting book, where you have to read on to the last page to see how it goes. Not quite as one thinks, should be mentioned. I’m never going to a conference again.”
Upsala Nya Tidning / SWE

“The last hundred pages are like reading at 150 miles per hour.”
Folkbladet Västerbotten /SWE

“Mats Strandberg lovingly builds up the personalities of his characters, establishing a reality where the horror surely becomes horrific when it strikes.”
Dagens Nyheter / SWE

”Sweden’s Stephen King has written another frightening and ”unfortunately” realistic horror thriller.”
Barometern / SWE

“After a few terrifying hours with the group at Lake Kolarsjön, one has lost all interest in conferences and scheduled leg stretches – mostly due to possible lunatics in the forest and a skilled author’s portrayal of everybodys vulnerability.”
Göteborgs-Posten / SWE

“So, no thank you, I would definitely not bear to see a film adaptation of this book. Sometimes it is unbearable to read. And that’s exactly how it should be.”
Sydsvenskan / SWE

“… a display of human shortcomings where the author’s compassion is clearly present, and the depiction of the sparsely populated municipality and geography is spot on.”
Katrineholms-Kuriren / SWE

”A totally hair raising action thriller so rugged that I do not hesitate to name Mats Strandberg one of our most skilled narrators. In chapter after chapter The Conference givs me of shortness of breath, It’s like Agatha Christie’s And Then They Were None meets your worst nightmare. I still haven’t pulled myself together. Several times I had to put down the book, deepen my breath and thank God for this year of conference-free work. In short: Strandberg has surpassed himself!”
Amelia / SWE