With the actress and director Helena Bergström she wrote the manuscript to the movie ‘Så Olika’ (English translation: ‘So Different’) that premiered towards the end of 2009.
In September 2009
Alsterdal made her debut as a novelist with the thriller ‘Women on the beach’. The idea of the novel was at first meant to be a movie manuscript but the possible producers found it would be too expensive as the story is set in seven countries. The story centres itself around people who drown when fleeing over the Mediterranean Sea and people who are taken advantage of as slave labour in Europe. The novel was praised by critics and has been published in nineteen languages.
The movie rights to ‘Women on the beach/The Forgotten Dead’ are sold to the British Filmwave AB who are developing a six part TV miniseries based on the story.
All of Alsterdal’s thrillers are standalone novels. She has been compared to the likes of Dennis Lehane and Dan Brown, and has been called “the John Le Carré of Sweden”.
In 2012 her second novel, ‘Grave of silence’, was published. It is set in Tornedalen, in the north of Sweden, and is about the Swedes who emigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930’s. Alsterdals relative Nils Bucht was one of the people who disappeared under Stalin’s terror. The novel was nominated as the best crime novel of the year in Sweden, the Netherlands and France.
Alsterdals third novel, ‘Let me take your hand’, was awarded the prize for the best crime novel by the Swedish Crime Writer’s Academy in 2014. The novel is set in the Stockholm suburb that the author grew up in, Jakobsberg, and in Argentina where a Swedish woman disappears during the military dictatorship in the 1970’s. “An elaborate and linguistically nuanced weave of mystery and contemporary history” read the motivation for the award.
In ‘Do not turn around’, published in 2016, Alsterdal returns to the mental hospital where she worked when she was younger. The novel depicts the collision between the place’s dark past and the new residence idyll that is growing in the area. The only witness to a murder is a Romani beggar.
“Not many authors would succeed in tying together a normal townhouse life with a society in free fall, combine big politics with murder mysteries with a gripping depiction of feeling alone within one’s family. But Tove Alsterdal does just that”, wrote best selling author and critic Malin Persson Giolito in the magazine ‘Amelia’.
Tove Alsterdal has been author Liza Marklund’s editor since ‘Sprängaren’ (The Bomber, 1998). She met Marklund at the school of journalism in 1984. Marklund has also been the first reader of all of Alsterdal’s novels. Together, they have written the manuscript for the movie based on the New York Times No 1 bestselling novel ‘Postcard Killers’ by Liza Marklund and James Patterson. The movie is expected to go into production in 2017 (George Films), directed by Janusz Kaminski, a cinematographer and academy award winner for ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving private Ryan’.
Chosen dramaturgy and movies
Stanisław Tym
Stanisław Tym born 17 July 1937) is a Polish movie director, screenwriter, dramatist and actor. Tym has directed one movie "Ryś" in 2007. He is best known for his role Ryszard Ochódzki in cult polish movie "Teddy Bear" and two sequels: "Controlled Conversations" and "Ryś".
Tym was born in Małkinia Górna, Poland.
Mercedes-Benz O309
The Mercedes-Benz O 309 was the bus version of the Düsseldorfer Transporter, It was built by Mercedes-Benz from 1967 to 1986.
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia.
Originally created by plate tectonics about 35 million years ago and subsequently altered by volcanism and erosion, the river's drainage basin was significantly modified by the Missoula Floods at the end of the most recent ice age. Humans began living in the watershed over 10,000 years ago. There were once many tribal villages along the lower river and in the area around its mouth on the Columbia. Indigenous peoples lived throughout the upper reaches of the basin as well.
Tony deBrum
Tony deBrum (February 26, 1945 – August 22, 2017) was a Marshallese politician and government minister. From 2012 and 2014, he was the Minister in Assistance to the President of Marshall Islands. He was an activist relating to climate change, and has been part of many conferences and demonstrations, including the People’s Climate March in New York City in September 2014.
In mid December 2015, he took part in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. He succeeded to form a new coalition between developed countries and developing countries called "High Ambition Coalition".
He was Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands from 1979 till 1987, 2008 till 2009 and 2014 till 2016.
deBrum died at his home in Majuro, Marshall Islands on August 22, 2017 at the age of 72.
Litokwa Tomeing
Iroij Litokwa Tomeing (14 October 1939 – 12 October 2020) was a Marshallese politician. He was the President of the Marshall Islands from January 2008 until October 2009.
Tomeing died on 12 October 2020 in Springdale, Arkansas, two days before his 81st birthday.
Emlain Kabua
Emlain Kabua (born February 1928) is a Marshallese artist and political figure. She is the former First Lady of the Marshall Islands and the widow of former Marshallese President Amata Kabua. Kabua served as the first First Lady of the Marshall Islands from 1979 until 1996.
She is known for being the designer of the Flag of the Marshall Islands.
Flag of the Marshall Islands
The flag of the Marshall Islands, an island nation in the Pacific, was adopted upon the start of self-government, May 1, 1979. The flag was designed by Emlain Kabua, who was the first First Lady of the republic.
Rules about the flag are set forth in the Official Flag of the Marshall Islands Act 1979 (Public Law 1979-1).
Amata Kabua
Amata Kabua (November 17, 1928 – 20 December 1996) was a Marshallese politician. He was the first President of the Marshall Islands from 1979 to 1996.
Kabua died in office after a long illness, on December 20, 1996, in Honolulu, Hawaii, aged 68.
Margot Hielscher
Margot Hielscher (29 September 1919 – 20 August 2017) was a German singer and actress. She appeared in over fifty movies between and 1939 and 1994.
Hielscher was born in Berlin. In 1957, she was chosen to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "Telefon, Telefon" "(Telephone, Telephone)". The song finished fourth out of ten, with eight points.
Hielscher was chosen again to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1958 with the song "Für Zwei Groschen Musik" "(Music For Two Pennies)". The song finished seventh out of ten, with 5 points.
In 1989, she starred in the TV series "Rivalen der Rennbahn".
Hielscher died in Munich on 20 August 2017, aged 97.
1970 California gubernatorial election
The California gubernatorial election, 1970 was held on November 3, 1970. The incumbent, Republican Ronald Reagan, won re-election over Democrat and Speaker of the Assembly Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh.
Reagan won 3,439,174 (52,83%) of the vote while Unruh won 2,938,607 (45.14%) of the vote.
Jesse M. Unruh
Jesse Marvin Unruh (September 30, 1922 – August 4, 1987), also known as Big Daddy Unruh, was an American Democratic politician. He was California State Treasurer. Unruh unsuccessfully ran for Governor of California against Ronald Reagan int the 1970 gubernatorial election. In 1973, Unruh ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Los Angeles.