The Courier

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Description

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz.

In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Ase, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire. And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war -time training to stay alive...

Written with Dahl's trademark characterization and elegant plotting, THE COURIER sees the hugely respected godfather of Nordic Noir at his best.

Reviews

"A dark but richly described backdrop and a relentless, underlying tension drive this sad story to its bittersweet conclusion." --Publishers Weekly

"Dahl excels at creating tense situations without violence or even dialogue...Fans of Scandinavian mysteries will enjoy this historical look at WWII Oslo." -- Historical Novels Review

'The Courier is a stylish stand-alone thriller from the godfather of Scandi noir ... Ola Dahl ratchets up the tension from the first pages and never lets go." --Times
"Skilfully juggling three Oslo timelines -- in 1942, 1967 and 2015 -- Dahl starts his story with Germany's occupation of Norway and the work of those who tried to resist, then brings his characters forward to a post-war unravelling of what really happened in those dangerous days -- and the traumatic rewriting of personal stories." --Times Crime Club
"A chilling novel about betrayal." --Sunday Times
"Excellent . . . Fans of Scandinavian noir will be eager for Dahl's next book." --Publishers Weekly starred review of The Ice Swimmer
"If you have never sampled Dahl, now is the time to try." --Daily Mail
"Kjell Ola Dahl's novels are superb. If you haven't read one, you need to--right now." --William Ryan, author, Holy Thief
"Superb . . . The translator's stripped-down, muscular prose is a plus." --Publishers Weekly starred review of Faithless
"The perfect example of why Nordic Noir has become such a popular genre." --Reader's Digest

Author Bio

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjovik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frolich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015.

His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.