Bio

SALLY FRANSON is the author of the novel A LADY'S GUIDE TO SELLING OUT.

Her second novel, BIG IN SWEDEN, will be published in summer 2024 by Mariner Books.

Meg Ryan is currently developing a screen adaptation of A Lady’s Guide with Netflix and Anonymous Content.

Sally was a 2022 cast member of Allt för Sverige, a Swedish reality TV show about finding your roots. She lives in Minneapolis.

 Recent Work

A review of Lorrie Moore’s novel I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home / A foray into Prince’s footwear for The New York Times / A review of Anita Hill’s memoir Believing for the San Francisco Chronicle / A quest to clown camp for Minneapolis-St. Paul magazine

Big in Sweden

Coming July 2024 from Mariner Books!

A charming, wise, and laugh-out-loud funny novel following an American woman competing on a Swedish reality show in an attempt to discover her roots.

“Swedish pancakes, Viking villages, evangelical relay races: Sally Franson’s hilariously cantankerous cast of Crying Americans vie for the chance to discover their Nordic roots in this raucous, big-hearted book. Imagine ancestry.com meeting The Great British Bake Off . . . with ABBA and karaoke. Big in Sweden is a very funny novel about the families we inherit and the ones we ultimately create for ourselves.”

—Julie Schumacher, bestselling and Thurber Prize–winning author of the Dear Committee Trilogy

“Big in Sweden is full of quick insight and charming detail, and absolutely packed with one-liners. Sally Franson is a brilliant comic writer—and one with a deep love for all her characters. It’s a dazzling combination.”

—Katherine Heiny, author of Games and Rituals

“If you devoured Pippi Longstocking as a kid, you will not be able to turn away from Big in Sweden. Reading this hilarious, heartfelt book was even more fun than watching reality television. I absolutely loved it!”

—Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane

“Sally Franson is a world-class entertainer. She can finesse a seriocomic moment in a way that leaves you catching your breath. Deft and delicious, this book is a flat-out delight machine. A heart opener, a page turner, and a true originell! I laughed out loud, I ugly cried, and I never, ever wanted it to end.”

—Meg Ryan, actor, writer, and director

Paulie Johansson has never put much stock in the idea of family: she has her long-term boyfriend Declan and beloved best friend Jemma, and that’s more than enough for her. Yet one night on a lark, she lets Jemma convince her to audition for Sverige och Mig, a show on Swedish television where Swedish-Americans compete to win the ultimate prize: a reunion with their Swedish relatives. Much to her shock, her drunken submission video wins her a spot on the show, and against Declan’s advice Paulie decides to go for it.

Armed with her Polaroid camera, a beat-up copy of Pippi Longstocking, and an unquenchable sense of possibility, Paulie hops on a plane to Sweden and launches into the contest with seven other Americans, all under the watchful eye of a camera crew. At first, Paulie is certain that she and her competitors have nothing in common besides their passports and views their bloodthirsty ambitions with suspicion. Yet amid the increasingly absurd challenges—rowing from Denmark to Sweden in the freezing rain, battling through obstacle courses, competing in a pickled herring eating contest—Paulie finds herself rethinking her snap judgments about her fellow countrymen, while her growing attachment to her Swedish roots increases her resolve to win the competition herself.

Grappling with long-held notions of family, friendship, and love—not to mention her feelings for the distractingly handsome Swedish cameraman who’s been assigned to follow her around—Paulie starts to reconsider her past and rethink what she wants for the future. A fish-out-of-water tale filled with warmth, optimism, and wit, Big in Sweden is at its heart a love story: love for family, friends, country, and—most importantly—oneself. 

A LADY’S GUIDE TO SELLING OUT

Out in paperback in January 2024!

An ambitious young woman navigates the slippery world of advertising–and the equally slippery question of who she wants to be.

“This frothy, sneaky tale from Franson intermixes elements of The Bold Type, Mad Men, and The Devil Wears Prada.
—Entertainment Weekly

"A gorgeous treat... Sally Franson’s voice is indeed addictive: whipsmart, biting and clever. I kept pausing to re-read parts of it with a huge smile on my face.”
—Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author of Jemima J, The Beach House, and Falling

“Bitingly funny...Comparisons will be made to The Devil Wears Prada, but Franson’s irresistibly flawed heroine holds her own as she strives to find honesty, meaning, and even love in a demanding world, resulting in an addictive, escapist novel.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A wry, observant take on career success and ambition.” —New York Post 

“A fast-paced and quick-witted trip into the world of advertising today. With smart, funny characters and perfectly crafted dialogue, Franson cleverly explores the battle between giving in and staying true to oneself.” —Booklist

Casey Pendergast, once a book-loving English major, is now a clothes-loving brand strategist at a top ad agency. Casey is a superstar, and her career has skyrocketed: she knows what people want, and she knows how to give it to them. When her hard-to-please boss assigns her to a top-secret marketing campaign that pairs authors with corporations hungry for creative copy and upmarket cache, Casey is initially thrilled–but as she begins to meet and woo her literary idols, she can’t help but question the cost on her conscience. With an unforgettable voice–plucky and razor-sharp, equal parts feminist and pop-culture–this is the story of a young woman untangling the contradictions of our culture, and finding her way out of the rat race by returning to her first love: literature.

@sallyjf on Instagram