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THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL
ISBN 9781963511000 | trade paper | $19.95 | publication date Feb 2025
Long after they're gone, childhood friendships can define and destroy us--or be the one thing that saves us.
In a small Swedish coastal town in 1986, 12-year-old Elliot dreams of being a video game designer. When he meets Calvin, a stuttering outcast with a knack for drawing, the two make a pact to create the greatest game ever made. Together with neighborhood friends Lisa and Skye, they gather their ideas in a folder, but external influences pull at the strings of their tight knit group.
More than twenty years later, Elliot is a pariah, his status as a highly sought-after designer in the games industry squandered after he sabotages his own studio. But his biggest regret is his estrangement from Calvin--whose tragic passing means that any chance of repair is now gone. But when Elliot receives Calvin's old folder with their unfinished project, the past unravels before him.
He sets out to honor his late friend's dying wish, gathering the studio back together to build the game of their dreams--while slowly picking up the pieces of his life.
Celebrated Swedish novelist Andreas Roman's English language debut is a deeply affecting redemption story that explores why we hurt the people we love, and how to come back from it.
PRAISE FOR THE SWEDISH EDITION
“My words don’t do justice how great this book is. Read it!”- Bokföring enligt Monika
“When I’d finished the Greatest Game of All, I had the feeling I’d already read the best book of the year. And it’s only January.”- Lotten Englund, blogger
“This is exceptional ... this story is so beautiful, I wish I was a part of it.”- Åsa Bonelli, writer
Andreas Roman grew up on the Swedish west coast. He spent his childhood figuring out how to skip school to work on stories for the video games he was creating. Today, he's a novelist as well as a writer and producer for the app and video games industry, where he's participated in the development of global apps like Sleep Cycle and video game franchises such as Mirror's Edge, Battlefield, InVector, Terminator, and Leo's Fortune, which won an Apple Design award. Andreas lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he has published ten novels in his native Swedish to critical acclaim, selling over 100,000 copies, and with several translations into Danish, German, and Norwegian.
AUTHOR ANDREAS ROMAN