The Believer

November 28, 2016
Three people struggle to find their place in the world in this page-turner from Zander (The Swimmer). Yasmine Ajam and her younger brother, Fadi, grew up in the economically depressed Stockholm suburb of Bergort. Yasmine manages to escape her dismal existence by relocating to New York City, but Fadi is left behind and eventually becomes radicalized by a group of jihadists who prey on his hopelessness. Klara Walldéen, a functioning alcoholic, works for a human rights institute in London researching the effects of privatizing police forces. But when she travels to Stockholm in preparation for an important E.U. conference, she becomes entangled in a deadly grand-scale conspiracy. Though some of the plot twists strain credibility, this thriller’s real power is in the poignant portrayal of Bergort and its residents. Impressively complex characters and stark atmospherics make this a thematically profound read. Agents: Astri von Arbin Ahlander and Christine Edhäll, Ahlander Agency (Sweden).

November 15, 2016
Zander's latest page-turning political thriller weaves three interconnected stories into a hypertopical tale of international intrigue.Young, hip, and in trouble, Yasmine Ajam fled her life in Bergort--a rough borough of Stockholm--to start over in New York City, falling into a lucrative gig as a trend spotter, keeping advertising agencies abreast of the next big thing. She has not spoken to her brother, Fadi, in more than three years when she gets the news: an email from a friend informing her that Fadi, radicalized by the Islamic State group in her absence, went to Syria and died in battle. But a month later, a second email arrives: Fadi has been spotted in Bergort--alive. Desperate to find him, she takes off for Bergort on the company dime only to discover the search is even more complicated than she could have imagined: the city is erupting in riots, and it's increasingly clear that the violence on the streets is somehow connected to Fadi's disappearance. Meanwhile, in London, Klara Walldeen--a familiar face to readers of Zander's The Swimmer (2015)--has a new job as a human rights researcher, working on a report about the privatization of police, to be presented at an EU conference in Stockholm. But when her laptop is stolen and her secretive colleague is pushed in front of an oncoming train, Klara once again finds herself an unwitting participant in a conspiracy she doesn't understand. It's not until her path unexpectedly crashes into Yasmine's that the mystery starts to come together, revealing something darker and more sinister than either of them could have imagined. Zander's twisting, high-octane plot could not be more timely, but it's the characters, all three of them, that bring this vivid novel to life. Suspenseful and primed for Hollywood adaptation, this is escapist fiction at its best.

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Starred review from November 15, 2016
Zander's very fine debut novel, The Swimmer (2014), introduced Klara Walldeen, a beautiful young Swedish lawyer working in Brussels for a European Union parliamentarian. Klara returns in The Believer. She's working now as a researcher in London, preparing a report on the privatization of prisons and police forces for consideration by the EU in an upcoming meeting in Stockholm, but after her computer is stolen, she realizes that something hinky and possibly deadly is going on. In a gritty Stockholm slum, disaffected Muslim youth Fadi Ajam is becoming radicalized. In New York, Fadi's older sister, Yasmine, who essentially raised Fadi, has become a trendspotter hired by New York ad agencies to identify the next new thing from the street. She returns to Stockholm and finds her old neighborhood burning from nightly riots that seem to be orchestrated by outsiders. Zander unveils the treachery in measured doses, but the scars the trio already bear are evocatively described and carry the reader on to the next revelation. Klara's scars manifest themselves in her drinking more, and appear to stem from events in The Swimmer. Yasmine and Fadi are both damaged by their lives in their poor, alienated, often violent community. Zander has written another compelling, timely, and character-centered thriller, and many readers will look forward to what he does next.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

Raised in Stockholm, New York-based Yasmine Ajam rushes back home when she learns that rioting there might be connected to the disappearance of her reputedly radicalized brother. Soon she encounters Klara Walldeen, fresh from London and human rights research, whose laptop has been stolen. Short-listed for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

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