Our Own Little Paradise - Hardcover

by Marianne Kaurin (Author), Olivia Lasky (Translator)

A BEST BOOK OF THE 21st CENTURY

Kirkus Reviews

Could summer in your neighborhood turn out to be better than an exotic holiday overseas? Nora and her new neighbor are about to find out...

Nora has no plans for the summer. Suddenly, she finds herself lying in front of the entire class, telling them she is going to the Mediterranean for three weeks. And then the lie keeps growing and growing via social media. The only problem is that the new boy in class has moved to Nora's neighborhood and he will easily find out that she is not in the Mediterranean. Perhaps the best summer holiday is the one you thought would be the worst?

A warm, believable story about friendship, first love, and social media from Norwegian author Marianne Kaurin.

Author Biography

Marianne Kaurin has earned several literary awards for her books for children and young adults. Her middle grade novel - Our Own Little Paradise (Blue Lagoon Deluxe in Germany) was awarded one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world, Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis 2021, Kaurin's debut, the young adult novel Almost Autumn, was awarded The Ministry of Culture First Book Award 2012, Best YA 2012, and the American literary prize The Sydney Taylor Book Award 2018. Marianne Kaurin has studied creative writing and literature at the Norwegian Institute for Children's Books. She works as a children's book editor.

Olivia Lasky is an Oslo-based translator who focuses on Norwegian to English literary translations. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she received an M.A. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and B.A.s in Scandinavian Studies and English Literature from the University of California-Berkeley in 2010. She was a 2020 mentee in the American Literary Translators Association Emerging Translator Mentorship Program and won the American-Scandinavian Foundation Wigeland Prize for Translation in 2019. Her work has been published by Greystone Books, The Experiment, and Words Without Borders.