A sea-borne Christmas adventure for young readers
Author: Axel Åhman & Ola Skogäng
Swedish original: Smugglarens skatt
Publisher: S&S, 2024
Number of pages: 192 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, English sample, English synopsis
Rights sold: Danish, Bogoo
Twelve-year-old Oliver can’t wait for Christmas to come. His parents are away for work, and he’s spending two weeks at Grandma’s place, which happens to be on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere.
Grandma and Oliver get on well but there isn’t much to do, unless doing homework and sorting out Grandma’s huge collection of china Santa Clauses are your idea of fun. Oliver can’t help but wonder what’s in the attic, the only part of the house that’s off limits – until one day curiosity gets the better of him, and he sneaks in.
Oliver finds an old photograph of a uniformed sea captain, a few old nautical charts of the area, some letters, and a mysterious compass that doesn’t point north, but always takes him where he wants to go. This is fine as far as Oliver’s concerned, but soon more mysteries emerge: who was his ancestor Verner Strand really, and what befell him on Christmas Eve 100 years ago? Could the rumours about a hidden treasure in the archipelago be true?
The Smuggler’s Treasure is a tale of adventure, mystery, and family secrets, culminating in a Christmassy happy ending. It shows that nothing is as it seems, and all that glitters isn’t gold, while treasures can be found in the oddest places.
“But maybe the treasure’s still there? Maybe it’s just very well hidden?“
“That’s not impossible. But to find it you’d have to know which island to search for it on – and that knowledge went down with the region’s most notorious smuggler.“
– Translated by Fiona Graham
About the authors:
Axel Åhman
Ola Skogäng