There Is No Paradise

Oskar Kroon

It’s summer vacation and Alex is going to stay with his grandfather in the seaside town they call “Paradise”. He had rather been somewhere else entirely, but his mom got a job that she and her conscience couldn’t refuse. His mom claims that his grandfather is kind, deep inside. But since Alex’s grandmother died, his grandfather has changed. He has become someone who seems to hate everything, except possibly his robot lawnmower.

In Paradise there is also Tage, who perhaps hangs out with Alex mostly because he has no better option, and then a hawk who somehow sees right through Alex. Then Nina appears as if from nowhere, like a perfect song you hear for the first time. And Alex just knows that he must meet her again.

A finely tuned story about first love by double August Prize winner Oskar Kroon.

 

Praise for Oskar Kroon’s earlier work

“This coming-of-age story is beautifully observed.” The Daily Express, UK

“It’s a such a joy that Waiting for the Wind receives the August Prize, because this is how the really good children’s books are told: carefully and with easy steps, where the everyday events have a greater meaning and the child exists as part of a larger world. Swedish picture and young adult books have long held a high level, but here Oskar Kroon shows that even middle-grade titles can reach beyond what is usual.” Dagens Nyheter

“Oskar Kroon is one of our best storytellers for children’s books. Oskar Kroon has an ability to colour everyday deceptions with a helpless melancholy. (…) he is the absolute best when he writes for the beginners, like in this years August winner Windflowers and Piss Rats” Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter

“Oskar Kroon writes incomparably about bullying and sibling love” Politiken

“A really nice, well-written and harsh novel about bullying! The reader is completely drawn into Kaj’s feeling of powerlessness, but also his great love for his older brother. The language is fluent, the tension is high and the plot is so well put together that the reader is completely caught up in the story.” Mette Balle Christensen, Dansk BiblioteksCenter

 

Books by the same author