“An outstanding book about courage and morality, well substantiated, exciting and at times so moving that I got tears in my eyes and had to take a deep breath before I continued reading.”
This book was awarded the Lengertz literature award and the Gisela och Oscar Trapps memorial award, both in 2021. The author was also rewarded honorary scholarships for it.
THE BOOK
THE HELSINGØR CROSSING (Swedish title: Sundets röda nejlikor), out at Bonnier/Forum September 2020, is a reportage on the Danish resistance group code-named The Elsinore Sewing Club (DK: Helsingør).
Together with the Swedish security police they managed to transport 1,500 refugees and resistance members across the sound between Denmark and Sweden during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Conny's gripping narrative recounts the true story of how The Sewing Club helped their fellow humans in need, sometimes at the cost of their own lives.
Conny started writing in his early teens and since his 2005 debut, he has published nine books to date. He has received multiple awards for his work, including the Helsingborgs Dagblad’s Cultural Prize, Umeå Short Story Prize and the Selma Prize.
When he's not writing, Conny works as an editor, literary critic and ghost writer. He has made a documentary film about the story of The Elsinore Sewing Club, and enjoys photography in his free time.
THE AUTHOR
Born in 1973, Conny Palmkvist grew up in the small town of Jonstorp in southern Sweden. He began writing when he was just fourteen, processing his father’s death through a series of poems that spanned far beyond the backwater where he lived.
Conny spent several years glued to his trusty old typewriter, slowly developing his characteristic style. Ironically enough, it was another tragic event that led him to the publication of his debut novel in 2005, written as he worked through the loss of his mother.
The manuscript took just five days to sell, with the rights being snapped up by one of Sweden’s most respected publishing houses. It proved to be a great success with both readers and critics.
Since then, Conny has written another ten novels, which have been recognised by a number of Swedish literary awards, including Helsingborgs Dagblads kulturpris, Umeå Novellpris and Selmapriset. The latter was awarded for his depiction of the Auschwitz women’s orchestra.
Conny is often praised for his ability to capture a range of voices in his novels, and has featured a whole host of characters over the years—from a seventeen-year-old girl in a death camp to an elderly man living out his final days at ninety. His signature is, and will always be, his close perspective, as well as the poetic undercurrent in his texts.
Attempting to avoid becoming completely bogged down in his role as an author, Conny occasionally works as an editor, ghostwriter, literary critic, and photographer. In a moment of weakness in 2016, he agreed to making a documentary about the Danish Jews’ flight from Denmark to Sweden during the Second World War—without ever having worked with the medium of film before. The result was a documentary entitled The Straight Escape, the rights to which were bought by Danish TV. The film has now been broadcast a total of twelve times since 2018.
Conny lives with his family in Helsingborg southern Sweden.
RIGHTS SOLD
Czech: Albatros
Denmark: Turbine Forlaget
“The book’s writing style artfully pulls us along through the wealth of information. And Conny Palmkvist has the courage to abstain from censuring. He presents us with dum-dum bullets, violent rapes, horrible torture. Kjaer was captured and sent to the camps that he had saved so many from. But the bookbinder turned skipper survived and lived till ripe old age and he continued binding books.”
“Palmkvist brings to life the bookbinder who risked his life to save the Danish Jews.”
“In the hands of an inferior stylist, it would’ve become an overly literal and overloaded work. But here, every word finds its place, with selectiveness and restraint and in longer sections the author remains behind the scenes. The fate-heavy, tension-focused, tension-driven material speaks for itself.”