Scandinavians title to HoZ

Head of Zeus is to publish Scandinavians, an exploration of Denmark, Norway and Sweden by Robert Ferguson.

The publisher acquired world rights to the title, which will be released in November 2016.

In Scandinavians, Ferguson draws on three decades of living in Scandinavia – and digs down through two millennia of its history – to explore the balance of truth and myth in our perception of these three countries. He tells stories of people, places, moods and objects – from Old Norse rune stones to the Vasa ship, from mad King Christian VII of Denmark to Anders Behring Breivik, from the melancholia of Kierkegaard to the bleakness of Nordic noir – that illuminate and enrich our understanding of modern Scandinavian, its society, politics and culture.

Ferguson has lived in Norway since 1983. He is the biographer of Henrik Ibsen and Knut Hamsun and the author of The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings (Penguin). He is the translator of Lars Mytting’s bestselling Norwegian Wood (Maclehose), winner of the Non-Fiction book of the Year Award at the 2016 British Book Awards, and of Torkil Damhaug’s Oslo Crime Files quartet.

Richard Milbank, publishing director of non-fiction at Head of Zeus, said: "Robert Ferguson takes the reader on an extraordinary and intellectually thrilling voyage of Scandinavian discovery."