Photo: Lise Svelander
Photo: Lise Svelander
Cecilia Ekhem is a Swedish author of 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.
She was 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.
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
Feelgood series: Helena's Journey
A series about second chances, belonging, and discovering that it is never too late to begin again.
Saying Kalimera
After fifty, Helena’s life feels smaller than it once did. Her beloved son has moved away, the burnout she suffered years earlier still shadows her days, and her part-time job in a school kitchen brings little joy. Then a letter arrives from Greece.
A distant relative has left her an inheritance in a small village on Crete. Although she can barely afford the journey, Helena boards a plane in search of answers and unexpectedly finds a new sense of purpose. Beneath the Greek sun, she meets a cast of unforgettable characters, including the free-spirited artist Aurora and the charming Max, who helps her find a place to stay.
But the past is never far behind. To move forward, Helena must confront old wounds, reconsider long-held assumptions, and find the courage to make life-changing decisions.
A warm and uplifting novel about grief, hope, and the courage to begin again.
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.
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
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 (2025)