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Cecilia Ekhem
Cecilia Ekhem
Cecilia Ekhem writes fiction for both adults and young readers. Her stories often begin in the ordinary but rarely stay there, moving towards moments when something shifts in relationships, identity, or the surrounding world, always with a close focus on the emotional lives of her characters.
In her books for younger readers, she often combines coming-of-age stories with real historical events, bringing together past and present through the experiences of children who find themselves inside larger historical moments. Her work is widely used in schools and often forms the basis for author visits and writing workshops, where reading, storytelling and creative writing are explored in dialogue with students.
For adult readers, she writes novels that return to relationships, loss, and life’s quieter turning points. Her stories often explore how people continue when circumstances change through illness, rupture or unexpected shifts, and how new meaning can slowly take shape in their aftermath. Alongside her fiction, she speaks about writing as a long-term practice and about finding ways to remain creative when life itself changes its conditions.
Born in 1970 in Sundsvall, Sweden, and has also lived in Umeå, Uppsala, Masase in Zimbabwe, and Nairobi in Kenya before returning to Sundsvall, where she lives today.
Children's
Children's
ORIGINAL TITLE: Vasas hemlighet
PUBLICATION: Lind&Co, 2024
WORD COUNT: 36 000
The Vasa Secrets
It is the summer of 1628, and eleven-year-old Katarina slips away to swim whenever she can. She keeps it secret. In a time when fear of witchcraft is spreading across Europe, anyone who floats on water can face serious consequences.
From her hidden bathing place, she can see the king’s magnificent new warship preparing to sail. The Vasa is meant to help Sweden win the war and bring fathers home, including hers. Katarina lives in Stockholm with her mother while her father is away fighting, and she hopes the great ship will finally bring peace.
One day she meets Jakob, a boy her own age from a wealthy family. They begin daring each other to carry out secret missions. What starts as a game soon draws them closer to the Vasa itself.
But can Katarina trust Jakob? If anyone discovers that she can swim, she could be accused of witchcraft. And as whispers spread that the magnificent ship may not be as steady as it should be, she begins to wonder whether everything is truly as it seems.
If the Fire Takes Us
Sofia’s life in Sundsvall in 1888 is hard. She struggles to help support her family, and there is a real risk that she will be sent away to work on a farm far from home, even though she is only twelve years old. On this hot and windy day in June, she tries to push aside her worries and looks forward to finishing her chores so she can slip away to see her best friend Joel — who is both orphaned and without legs.
But suddenly a bell rings out across the town — there is a fire! The wind makes the flames spread at a furious pace, and Sofia realizes that Joel will never be able to escape on his own. Now she must save her friend and survive the worst fire in Sweden’s history.
Inspired by a real 19th-century urban catastrophe, If the Fire Takes Us is a gripping story of loyalty, resilience, and courage in the face of overwhelming disaster. The novel combines a fast-moving survival narrative with themes of class, child labour, disability, and loyalty.
ORIGINAL TITLE: Om elden tar oss
PUBLICATION: Lind&Co, 2023
WORD COUNT: 39 000
ORIGINAL TITLE: När allting rasar
PUBLICATION: Beta Pedagog, 2026
When Everything Comes Crashing Down
When Everything Comes Crashing Down
On a winter night in 1980, something quite literal breaks apart in Sweden: a ferry moves through thick fog and a bridge gives way without warning, an ordinary crossing turning into catastrophe. For 11-year-old Anne, the fractures have been there much longer.
She is about to join a table tennis camp and she is nervous. She loves ping-pong , but not being the only newcomer. She is used to standing slightly apart from everyone else, often the only one with brown skin. Anne’s sense of isolation deepens as she realises she may be without a real friend there. Then she meets Rikard, and a new, unexpected friendship begins to form.
When Everything Comes Crashing Down explores what happens when the structures we depend on begin to fail, from friendships and family bonds to the physical world itself. Set against the backdrop of the real-life Tjörn Bridge disaster, it is a coming-of-age story about trust, courage, and the moment a child discovers that certainty can disappear overnight.
Fiction
Fiction
Series
ORIGINAL TITLE: Lär mig säga Kalimera
PUBLICATION: Pia&Co, 2025
WORD COUNT: 85 000
ORIGINAL TITLE: En sång om längtan
PUBLICATION: Pia&Co, 2026
WORD COUNT: 92 000
Helena's Journey
A series about second chances, belonging, and discovering that it is never too late to begin again.
The series marks Ekhem's debut in the feelgood genre, and readers have responded: the opening novel found a devoted audience on Storytel and earned a Storytel Awards nomination, with critics praising Ekhem's warm, emotionally attuned prose and her rare skill at writing characters who feel like old friends from the very first page.
Teach Me to Say Kalimera
A warm feelgood novel about the secrets we inherit, and the courage to face them.
Helena has passed fifty, and her life feels like a shadow of what it could have been. Her beloved son has moved far from home, and the burnout that struck her years ago still lingers, worsening as changes unfold at work. Her love for the school kitchen remains, but the new situation has replaced the joy of cooking with stress. Then a letter arrives from Greece. A relative she hasn't been in touch with for years has left her an inheritance in a small village on Crete. Though she can barely afford the trip, Helena boards a plane in search of answers — and finds a new sense of purpose along the way.
Between Two Shores
After an unexpected inheritance changed the course of her life, Helena now divides her time between Sweden and Greece. As she struggles to build a catering business in both countries, she also tries to reconnect with the music and the person she once was.
Her relationship with Max, the man she met on Crete, grows stronger every day, but how do you know when it is time to take the next step? It is a question she hopes to explore with her closest friends, Jasmine and Aurora. Yet friendship, like love, is tested when life takes unexpected turns, and the burnout she thought she had left behind begins to resurface.
When a serious illness affects someone close to her, Helena is forced to put her own plans aside and be there for others. At the same time, new relationships emerge, old questions return, and she finds herself searching once more for solid ground.
The second novel in a warm and heartfelt series about finding your way forward, even when the path is uncertain.
Bibliography:
Om elden tar oss, Lind&Co (2023)
Vasas hemlighet, Lind&Co (2024)
Lär mig säga Kalimera, Pia&Co (2025)
En sång om längtan, Pia&Co (2026)
När allting rasar, Beta Pedagog (2026)
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