THE END (SLUTET)

You are 17 years old. It is summer, and everything looks the same as usual. But everyone knows what’s coming. In little more than a month, a comet is crashing into earth and we will all be gone.

How do you want to spend the last weeks?

What do you want to say to the ones you love?

How does it feel to know the exact date and time of your death?

And if we are all dying, what does one life more or less matter?

The End is the story of two lonely young people in a world living on borrowed time. A tragedy ties them together and the surrounding mystery grows into a mutual obsession. But will they find the answers before the sky is set aflame and the oceans evaporate?

When Mats Strandberg re enters the scene of YA he does it with at pre apocalyptic story at the end of the world. A story with similarities to Melancholia, and with a voice as clear as John Green’s.

After two extremely successful horror novels for the adult audience Mats Strandberg is back with his first YA novel since the Engelsfors Trilogy. But this time, there is no magic to stop the apocalypse.

Mats Strandberg on the book:
“I instantly knew that this story had to be YA. It raises questions on how to live a full life in couple of months. Which choices will they make when sex and drugs no longer have any real consequences? And when the time has come, do they want to be with their friends or their parents.”

420 pages

Rights sold

Croatia: Fokus
Czech Republic: Host
The Faroe Islands: Bókadeildin Føroya Læraraferlags
Finland: Like
France: Editions Anne Carrière
Germany: Arctis Verlag
Hungary: Animus
Iceland: Óðinsauga útgáfa
Italy: Giunti
Lithuania: Alma Littera
Netherlands: Blauw Gras
Norway: Kagge
Poland: Sonia Draga
Russia: Ripol
Slovenia: Mladinska
Sweden: Rabén & Sjögren
USA: Arctis US

Film Rights

Option sold

REVIEWS

“A stellar work of fiction that will cling to readers’ minds and take hold of their hearts.”
School Library Journal / USA

“Scandinavian noir meets YA in a jam-packed novel that’s part whodunit, part romance, part end-of-the-world narrative.”
Publishers Weekly /USA

“A sprawling, at times meandering tale, bestselling author Strandberg’s latest moves a day at a time, an uneasy crawl toward the inevitable. Set in Sweden, the novel offers glimpses of turmoil abroad through pointed sociopolitical commentary and oblique observations on race. […] Messy, flawed, but utterly brilliant in its humanity.”
Kirkus Reviews / USA

“All of these big issues are tackled with ease, and very convincingly, by Strandberg. I think he has prepared and worked with this book extra carefully. He manages to keep this pre-apocalyptic story together without being either too misty-eyed or too didactic.”
Dagens Nyheter / SWE

“Deserves to be this fall’s most read and discussed book.”
Dagens Industri / SWE

“Book of the year, all categories.”
Arbetarbladet / SWE

”As always, Mats Strandberg has a perfect pitch for young people’s talk and behaviours. A YA novel that works just as well for adult readers.”
Metro / SWE

“A powerful text. It gives a hint of how it would be. It is completely believable in the way it tells the story of these young people and their families, and of how they deal with their fears and try to live their final days with dignity and meaning.”
Göteborgsposten / SWE

”Mats Strandberg’s novel is an intensive read. (…) Strandberg portrays his young characters credibly, and with small remarks he makes the world end’s atmosphere  alive”
Helsingin Sanomat / FI

“Together with social critique and philosphical conundrums, Strandberg gives us an intense thrillee and a warm and beautiful love story.”
Hadeland / NO

”Mats Strandberg has written perhaps the most important youth novel of the autumn. The action flows beautifully between the two narrator voices, Lucinda and Simon. The language is sometimes beautifully poetic.”
Bok365 / NO

“A must-read for everyone who wants to process their climate anxiety. One day you know it’s the last time you’ll do laundry, because you’ll have enough clean socks. One day, the weatherman only delivers reports for two more days, because after that, there will be no more weather. A little girl wants to celebrate Christmas in September since she loves the holiday. Strandberg builds his story with small, everyday things and creates an uncomfortable knot in my stomach – I am suddenly hit with a realization, I immediately become one of the characters; with so little time left and so much to do.”
Sydsvenska Dagbladet / SWE

“The novel is incredibly powerful. And strangely enough; it gives you courage.”
Västerbottenkuriren / SWE

“The End is this years most thrilling and heartbreaking Reading.”
List of best books of the year, Dagens Nyheter / SWE

“Who determines how the last days of life should be lived? I appreciate the challenge Mats Strandberg has given us with this book and I have difficulty leaving it behind me as the thoughts keep spinning in my head. This is an amazing novel for young readers as well as for adults, and I think there is a lot here for most readers. And what good and important conversations people will have with each other that would otherwise have been difficult to get to. I want to claim that readers who talk about this book will develop together. With that I give this novel my warmest recommendations.”
LitteraturMagazinet / SWE

”The most prominent feature of his authorship is his skills in portraying people’s inner feelings and the question is if he ever did it better than this time. The End is an unbelievably suspenseful and well-written novel about the end of the world – a big reading experience awaits you!”
Btj-häfte 21, 2018 / SWE

“A thought-provoking young adult novel that is full of suspense from the first page to the last.”
Vi läser / SWE

“It’s an honest, hopeful and warm portrait of humanity, despite our shortcomings”.
Göteborgs stadsbibliotek / SWE

“I have read The Circle and Blood Cruise and The Home and loved them all – despite that neither fantasy nor horror is really my thing. It’s thanks to the brilliant characters, settings, social realism and portraits of everyday life. And here, in The End, Strandberg does it more brilliantly than ever.”
Stories from the city / SWE

“Mats Strandberg skilfully creates characters who act in a believable manner /…. / The worldbuilding, with its fateful atmosphere, is also impressive.”
Västmanländskans bokblogg / SWE

“Brilliant, exciting and fascinating!!”
Jennie’s Booklist / SWE

“An amazingly brilliant book, without doubt one of the best ones this year, that absolutely no one should miss.”
Bims blogg / SWE

“Where do you begin when you love everything so much? When an author has done such a good job that you can’t find the words to describe why it’s so brilliant?”
Boktokig / SWE

“I have not devoured this book – it has devoured me.”
Instagramagical / SWE

“I can not praise this book enough. Everyone should read and experience this book (because it truly is an experience).”
Håkans hylla, blog / SWE

“What I really want to say is: read it, read it, read it. And then I recommend finding someone to talk about it with, because it will give you so many feelings and thoughts.”
Elzas bokhylla, blog / SWE

”Teenagers, unhappy love and a mystery. Exciting and well-written.”
Sydsvenska Dagbladet / SWE