The Heirs of the Arctic

The Heirs of the Arctic

Aslak Nore

Original title: Ingen skal drukne
Publisher: Aschehoug , 2023
Genre: Novel
Pages: 460 pages

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The Heirs of the Arctic opens in December 2015, half a year after the explosive revelation at the end of The Sea Cemetery. The holidays are approaching, and at the Rederhaugen estate, preparations are underway for the Falck family’s annual Christmas party. Meanwhile, in the far North of the country, tensions between Norway and Putin’s Russia are escalating.

Newly appointed SAGA Director Sasha Falck donates the rescue vessel Falck 3 to the Sea Rescue Society and pitches the idea of sending a research expedition to Svalbard. Hans Falck lies in a hospital bed in Northern Norway, gravely injured following an accident. And in Oslo, Johnny Berg receives word that a foreign agent has infiltrated SAGA. A desperate hunt for the mole ensues.

As the Falck 3 sets out for the spectacular landscapes of the High Arctic, the former Cold War enemies are about to confront each other yet again – with fateful consequences for the Falck clan.

Heirs of the Arctic, the second instalment of Aslak Nore’s bestselling adventure saga, describes an epic arc from post-World War II Europe and the restive 60s and 70s all the way to the present. It is a larger-than-life story about illicit love, dangerous political ideas, geopolitical cat-and-mouse games, bitter power struggles – and about how random encounters can change the course of not just individual lives but history itself.

Foreign rights

Danish: Gutkind (+ volume III)
Dutch: Harper Collins
English (UK & CW): MacLehose Press
Finnish: Gummerus
French: Le bruit du monde
German: Kiepenheuer & Witch (+ volume III)
Italian: Marsilio (+ volume III)
Lithuania: Obuolys
Russian: Corpus
Swedish: Norstedts

Family power struggles along the lines of Succession. (…) We see again that he knows how to narrate a thriller, cranking up the suspense at every turn.

VG

With Heirs of the Arctic, Aslak Nore confirms that he is indeed the new great voice of the Scandinavian thriller. No noir novelist has achieved such mastery since John le Carré.

Livres Hebdo

“Aslak Nore invites us on a wonderful contemporary odyssey, a novel between espionage, political history, and coming of age, between vertigo of the shadow and loyalty to oneself and to one’s family. … Nordic suspense takes on other colors and renews the genre thanks to an author who came from the cold but settled in Marseille. Remember the name: Aslak Nore.”

Linda Pomereul, Page Libraire

He is good at composition overall, in other words, at assembling plot elements in a way that fuels suspense. His knowledge of the Norwegian military and intelligence services also allows him to write with authority and credibility about the complexities of these worlds.

Aftenposten

Family ties aren’t necessarily a laughing matter, but they can make for literature worth reading. As in this case. (…) The story has solid momentum and the time periods are described well. (…) The author has written an entertaining novel. (…) A story that will without doubt hit home with readers.

Adresseavisen

Aslak Nore has read Dumas, Hugo and Tolstoy and knows the series Succession to his fingertips. He has written a high-flying series: Spy buffs will follow the conflict between the Russian and Norwegian secret services; readers of family sagas will not miss the reunions to see who gains the share majority. A game of chess, very far away from the banal thrillers.

Liberation

The first volume had the hallmarks of a historical novel, the second leans towards a geopolitical thriller, with Russians, Americans, spies and double agents. Within the Falck family, a power struggle is underway to get their hands on the SAGA foundation, in charge of the country’s archives. You won’t be able to put down this page-turner, with its labyrinthine ramifications which also deals with the utopias of youth, the cynicism of adulthood and the universal conflicts of loyalty.

Madame Figaro (France)

Aslak Nore

Aslak Nore (b. 1978) grew up in Oslo. He was educated at the University of Oslo and the New School for Social Research in New York and has served in Norway’s elite Telemark Battalion in Bosnia. A modern-day adventurer, Nore has lived in Latin America and worked as a journalist in the Middle East and Afghanistan. He has published several non-fiction books and four novels. Wolfsangel (2017) was a national bestseller and won the Riverton Prize for best crime novel in Norway in 2018. The Cemetery of the Sea (2021) is the first novel in an epic literary thriller series and a huge international success and bestseller. Nore lives in Provence, France.

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Other titles by Aslak Nore

Wolfsangel

Aslak Nore

2017
The Sea Cemetery

Aslak Nore

2021