A middle-grade novel and supernatural thriller that turns a young girl’s emotions into a magic-realistic fantasy adventure – can her new stepmother be trusted or is she a dangerous ancient monster?

✓  Danish and Ukrainan rights sold!

✓ Maria Turtschaninoff is a two-time winner of the Society of Swedish Literature Prize, a winner of the 2014 Finlandia Prize and has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award every year 2020-2024! Her children’s and YA titles have sold to 30 languages.

✓  TANGLED ROOTS (Inherited Land), Maria Turtschaninoff’s first adult fiction novel, has been awarded the prestigious Swedish YLE Literature Prize 2022 and sold to 23 languages

✓  Peter Bergting is one of Sweden’s most renowned comic book artists and fantasy and children book illustrators.

The Manticore is a highly illustrated middle grade novel. This supernatural thriller is told from the perspective of a young girl called Li,  who starts suspecting that her stepmother is in fact a Manticore, an ancient monster intending on devouring the protagonist and her baby brother. She realizes that no one can help her because no one would believe her. So as the Manticore starts fattening up the children, the protagonist hunts for a way to defeat her. She soon realizes that the only way to kill a Manticore is with a mythical object: the horn of a unicorn. But where can she possibly find one?