Cecilia Klang is an author as well as a freelance copywriter and communications officer. Growing up in Hofors, a town known for its steel industry, she is well-acquainted with the characteristics of the industrial towns of Sweden. After many years in copywriting, she made her literary debut in 2018 with Gäddsimmerskan, and in 2020 the sequel Bryggmästarens kärlek was published.

With extraordinary humour and empathy, Klang makes seemingly ordinary characters come to life. The Swedish rights to a trilogy set in the small industrial town Forshammar were sold to Polaris. The first book, May Contain Traces of Tommy Roos, was published in the summer of 2022. It was followed by Rain Expected in Southern Norrland in 2023, with the third and final part No Unauthorised Access published in May 2024.

Cecilia now resides in Gävle with her husband, their two children, and their dog Loffe. Her latest novel, The Chimpanzees at Point Nemo, was published in 2026.

Agent: Erik Larsson

Published Polaris, April 2026
Genre Upmarket feelgood
Pages 352

Rights sold
All rights available

Lisa is forty-five and hasn’t gotten any further in life than the twenty meters that separate her house from her father’s. She teaches at the same school she once attended, has the same hairstyle she’s always had, and cares for the same Greek tortoise. Rolf has turned eighty, and his cancer worries him less than the thought of what will happen to Lisa when he’s no longer around. How will she manage on her own?

When the illness forces them to confront what they’ve avoided for years, something begins to stir—between them and within them. How do you find a life of your own when the person you live for is slipping away?

The Chimpanzees at Point Nemo is a story about a father and a daughter and the unconditional love between them. It is about guilt and longing, about the lies we live with and the truths we cannot bear. It is a novel about humans and apes — about those who cling to the familiar and those who long to one day dare to let go.

Reviews

“Klang beautifully depicts a type of father-daughter relationship that is rarely portrayed in literature. Cecilia Klang’s empathetic prose manages to capture the incomprehensible nature of losing not only a father but also a part of oneself.”
- Gefle Dagblad

“Hofors’ leading contemporary author has released a delightfully serious new book. With a light touch, Cecilia Klang embraces grumpy loners in The Chimpanzees at Point Nemo.”
– Arbetarbladet

Published Polaris, May 2024
Genre Upmarket feelgood
Pages 352

Rights sold
All rights available

There is unrest in Forshammar. A car has burned in the town centre and residents are speculating about who is behind it. The welder Magnus Aronsson’s head is also in turmoil. A question from his daughter Amanda, asked during the last hour of New Year’s Eve, reminds him of the fatal accident he caused thirty-five years ago, and now the memories are starting to haunt him.

Meanwhile, Forshammarverket’s new site manager Sara Johansson has ambitious plans. By taking in trainees, young people who have fallen by the wayside, she is convinced that the factory, the workers, and the whole community will develop. Magnus does not believe in Sara’s ideas and when sixteen-year-old Juni reluctantly becomes his responsibility, he considers resigning.

No Unauthorised Access is the third and final part of the Forshammar series and the independent continuation of May Contain Traces of Tommy Roos and Rain Expected in Southern Norrland. It is a warm story about life and work in the small mill town – about the security of the morning coffee and the boredom of the punch clock, about pizza in front of the TV and the art of keeping the driveway clear of snow. But mostly it’s about the people. Those who have stayed, those who have come home and those who have always longed to belong.

Reviews

“Cecilia Klang's language and ability to portray the everyday stress of an ordinary society is so cruelly good and believable.”
- Smålandsposten

Published Polaris, 2023
Genre Upmarket feelgood
Pages 368

Rights sold
German: C. Bertelsmann (Penguin Random House)
Norwegian: H. Aschehoug & Co

Fifty-three-year-old Susanne Åkesson has spent her entire life taking care of her home, her partner Lars, their children and her single mother. But when her sons have been away for a long time, her mother suddenly dies and Lars goes on early retirement from his managerial job at the factory, no one needs her anymore. Susanne ponders what she should do with her life, without her own money or a real job and with the judgmental looks of the Forshammar residents on her.

In her mother's dilapidated summer house, she hopes to find peace as well as herself, but all she finds are memories of her own childhood and her mother's seemingly empty life. And when the thermometer steadily shows thirty degrees, the weather report is the only entertainment available and the local shopkeeper Lotta is constantly breathing down her neck, Susanne wonders if she made the wrong decision.

Maybe she should have just carried on as before? Or is it that life, unlike the weather, cannot be predicted at all? When you least expect it, there might be a storm, some sunshine or a man who wants to paddle a canoe.

Rain Expected in Southern Norrland is the second part in the series about the factory town of Forshammar and the independent continuation of May Contain Traces of Tommy Roos. It's a warm story about life choices, family secrets and the difficulty of finding yourself in a place where everyone already seems to know everything about who you are.

Reviews

"It is definitely entertainment, but with insightful human depth."
- Arbetarbladet

"Warm and sad about trying to find yourself in adulthood."
- Femina

Published Polaris, 2022
Genre Upmarket feelgood
Pages 350

Rights sold
Norwegian H. Aschehoug & Co
Dutch Uitgeverij Luitingh-Sijthoff
German C. Bertelsmann (Penguin Random House)
Film and TV Nordisk Film

Tommy Roos’ life is as it has always been. He works at the factory in his hometown Forshammar and has been married to his teenage love Martina for many years. The only thing that really differs from adolescence is that all big things have been put aside — the rock star dreams have been replaced by the house, the Volvo and the dog. Tommy himself thinks that everything is going well, but Martina does not. During a conversation with a couples therapist, she drops a bomb: she wants a divorce. At the same time, Tommy receives news that the factory is facing the threat of a move to Estonia, with hundreds of unemployed as a result.

Tommy's life is about to collapse completely—but then he meets opera singer Gunnel Aurell, once an internationally celebrated star. With Gunnel's help, Tommy finds his voice again and gets the chance to prove that there is still life and fighting spirit left in both him and Forshammar.

May Contain Traces of Tommy Roos is a novel about the big events of a little life. It is a kind of power ballad, a harmonious song about the person you wished you had become — and the person you actually became. It is also a story about a small town, and its struggle to stay alive.

Reviews

"Cecilia Klang writes with a light hand and has a natural sense of humour (...) she should be able to compete for feel-good awards for the novel of the year, but also be a candidate when working-class literature awards, such as the Stig Sjödin prize, are awarded."
- Gefle Dagblad

"May Contain Traces of Tommy Roos is written with both humour and finesse and also deals with a lot of bitter truths. The old rock star Tommy Roos’ path to insight and maturity is a guaranteed mood lifter in the same spirit as Fredrik Backman's characters Ove and Britt-Marie."
- Alingsås newspaper