NORSTEDTs agency Fiction

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1 NORSTEDTs agency 2013 Fiction

2 Fiction Liknelseboken Metaphor A Love Story by Per Olov Enquist March 2013, 249 pages Senior Editor: Eva Gedin Rights sold to: Carl Hanser, Germany Actes Sud, France Gyldendal, Norway Rosinante, Denmark Ambo/Anthos, the Netherlands Iperborea, Italy Metaphor A Love Story More than copies sold the first week! He is thinking that the eulogy he had held to his Mother in the Congregation House perhaps should be revised. By the river s shore a flock of dying friends are standing, they are pleading to him to explain how everything is connected, for instance this matter with Love. The Boy not the one who had died, but the one with the same name who had lived and had become the Author. And the woman in the Larsson House; she, who had lain down with him on the knot-free pine floor. Should he write the truth? And Father s note book with the ripped-out pages, that had been burnt and was forever gone. And then suddenly is resurfacing after all these years, like a crack in history opening up before him. Should all this really be told in the eulogy? And be transformed into the love story he never thought he would be able to write? Per Olov Enquist s new novel Liknelseboken continues, in some ways, the story in his praised memoir novel Ett annat liv. It is about the Mother and the Father, the Books and whether it is really possible in the end to sum up all that really mattered. From all this a love story emerges, which takes its beginning in a meeting between the 15-year-old boy and an older woman on a knot-free pine floor in the Larsson House. Press voices: To my surprise, I start bawling like a baby Liknelseboken is actually so beautiful that it makes you cry. Sveriges Radio s Kulturnytt Enquist stretches his language. With short phrases. Sparse words. Rare. His own private words. Enough with the quibbling. Italics. Exclamation points! Sometimes several!!! Highlighted text. Implied meaning. [P O] with his old notebook approaches the pain threshold of reading. Then, imperceptibly, continued >

3 fiction Per Olov Enquist Per Olov Enquist was born in 1934 in northen Sweden. He is one of the most celebrated authors in Scandinavia, and his novels have been translated into more than 40 languages. Enquist has also written screenplays for TV and film and several plays, and today he is one of the most performed Scandinavian playwrights. Enquist is one of only two writers ever having received the prestigious August Prize for fiction twice; in 1999 with the novel Livläkarens besök/the Royal Physician s Visit, and in 2008 with his memoir novel Ett annat liv/another Kind of Life. we cross the line, and on the other side language and words and metaphors take shape once again. It is simply dazzlingly beautiful. Rarely have his mother s words, [P O], it wouldn t surprise me if you became a prophet some day! had the same significance as they do here./ / Liknelseboken is filled with a rare power that makes the old shiny new, the commonplace profound and [P O s] vivid recollections great literature. Helsingborgs Dagblad And it also carries a kind of literature s own truth an insight via words that is in itself far beyond words. And which, nonetheless, despite the fact that the meaning neither lends itself to being summarized or defined, more and more clearly reverberates through the novel like a wordless insight, an insight beyond all metaphors, which can be exclusively understood as a feeling. It is very beautiful. Dagens Nyheter A close-to-earth, fairytale-like love / / It turns into some of Enquist s finest work, a letter from a living person to a dead one. It has now arrived. Svenska Dagbladet One of the most entertaining romans à clef I have ever read. Swedish Television s Kulturnyheterna And the result is very much a romance novel, full of life even when at its most ascetic.

4 Fiction Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves by Jonas Gardell Senior Editor: Eva Gedin 1. Kärleken/1. Love, August 2012, 300 pages Lead title in the two major book clubs Sample translation in English available 2. Sjukdomen/2. Disease, January 2013, 300 pages 3. Döden/3. Death, July 2013, 300 pages Rights sold to: Pirat, Norge De Geus, the Netherlands WSOY, Finland Tiderne Skifter, Denmark W.A.B., Poland Pegasus, Turkey Draumsyn, Iceland Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves In 1982 the first reports on a new mysterious disease reached Sweden; a cancer-like illness with rapid course and imminent death striking only homosexual males. They are a sort of family: the lovely queen Paul; the steady couple Lars-Åke and Seppo; Reine, with his haunting past from a rural fishing island; fair Bengt who is a film star in the making. Every year they celebrate Christmas at Paul s, that is where that Benjamin and Rasmus meet and fall in love. They will sacrifice everything for love. They love each other so dearly; the world and the future belong to them. This is when that disease comes to town. The gay plague. The new Black Death. They are all so young. One after another they shall die. Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar is a compelling, passionate and desperate portrayal of 1980s Stockholm, of people who had started to grasp their freedom for the first time in history, and about an illness that broke out and threatened to kill them all. Recognised as one of his country s best-loved authors, Jonas Gardell has written a piece of contemporary history, a magnum opus praised by readers and critics alike. Norstedts published the first part of this great work about AIDS, 1. Kärleken, in August 2012 and it immediately became a best-seller, topping the charts for weeks on end. Since publication, 1. Kärleken has sold more than copies. Part two, 2. Sjukdomen, was published in January 2013 and has since then sold copies. Part three, 3. Döden, will be published in July. continued >

5 fiction Jonas Gardell Jonas Gardell was born in 1963 and made his highly praised literary debut in He is one of Scandinavia s most popular stand-up comedians and a highly appreciated playwright. In his books he portrays all kinds of human beings, the humour is natural and palpable as is also pain and sorrow. There are no taboos, he moves with precision between the big and the small, between dreams and stern reality. Jonas Gardell has written 16 books and has been translated into 13 languages. Press voices for 2. Sjukdomen: Jonas Gardell is just the author to write the great novel about the merciless and tragic pestilence of our time. He observes and describes and always manages, with his narrative discipline, to tell us so much more about the people and the emotions struck by the AIDS hurricane. Örnsköldsviks Allehanda Their falling in love and subsequent love affair must be one of the most beautiful in the history of Swedish literature, and the most painful. Sundsvalls Tidning This story has never been told before, not this extensively or this thoroughly. As far as I know, nobody else in Europe has done it either. Oskarshamns-Tidningen Gardell is a master of elucidating a single destiny and filling it with happiness and pain. Blekinge Läns Tidning Gardell has an amazing ability to illustrate the special vulnerability of a child; like a thin and particularly effective knife, it slices its way to the memory of powerlessness that most people carry deep inside. Svenska Dagbladet When I had read the first part of the trilogy, Kärleken, I feared that Jonas Gardell had already said everything he had to say about love, illness and death. The story was so dense, and furious, and intense. As if the author himself didn t dare believe that he would really get the chance to write the other two books in the trilogy, and therefore, just to be sure, said it all in the first book. In Sjukdomen, he is actually telling the same story about the same people one more time. And still it is a whole different story. Deeper, more certain, sadder. Now I am eagerly awaiting the third book in this grand and cutting-edge novel project. Göteborgs-Posten

6 Fiction Jag tjänar inte I Will Not Serve by Jenny Åkervall March 2013, 384 pages Senior Editor: Susanna Romanus Sample translation in English available A thrilling novel about relationships, ambition and high-stakes power play! I Will Not Serve When she went to pick up the newspaper the next morning, she found the photo slipped in through the chink beneath the door. She almost missed the picture which flew out and landed on the thin blanket of snow that had settled on the landing during the night. When she leaned over it she immediately saw that it was a photo of herself. She was standing with a glass of wine in her hand and gazed through the grand panorama window in the living room at Paul Zander s place. At first she just stared, paralysed, at the photo, then she quickly put it in the pocket of her dressing gown and plod through snow down to the letter box while her brain went into overdrive. Psychiatrist Anna Sager is worn out with work and struggles with everyday life. At home, her husband Jakob is increasingly frustrated with having to take care of the household and the kids in her absence. And at work, she fails to be as committed to her patients as she usually is, with severe consequences. When Anna is contacted by the security police, offering her to do a profile on a young girl who is stalking a minister of the government, it seems like a new beginning for her professional life. But Anna lets her emotions guide her and soon she is dragged into a political power play, where she herself risks becoming a victim. At the Government Offices Anna gets to know Emre Oktan, an up-and-coming press secretary who is also fighting battles between his personal and professional life. On the one hand he has the headstrong Prime Minister and the receding poll ratings to deal with; on the other hand he has his background and high personal values, which sometimes clash with his political mission. continued >

7 fiction Jenny Åkervall Jenny Åkervall, born in 1972, has worked as a speech writer for, among others, former Prime Minister Göran Persson. She has also worked as editor-in-chief at the union paper Akademikern and the socialdemocratic Frihet, as well as a journalist for leading daily papers as Expressen, Göteborgs-Posten and Borås Tidning. Currently, she works within the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament). Jenny Åkervall was raised in Borås but has also lived and studied in London. Today she lives with her husband and three children outside Stockholm. Jag tjänar inte is an exciting contemporary novel about the harsh world of politics and the crisis of modern psychiatry. But it is also a story of a woman s midlife crisis, where all the choices she has made are suddenly challenged. Debutant Jenny Åkervall writes cunningly and with a nimble pen about both psychiatry and political power. Her past as a journalist and a political speech writer is evident in the narrative s settings, as well as in the depiction of the characters. Press voices: Jag tjänar inte is a mix of suspense, contemporary romance and a female depiction of a psychiatrist who ends up in a life crisis. It is driven and entertainingly written, while it s clear that the author wants something she portrays a mental health care on the verge of disintegration, and politics where powerful men hold each others back. Aftonbladet Jag tjänar inte has a suspense that drives the plot forward, and a focus of great female portraits, alongside the pictures from politics and the media scene. Arbetarbladet I have never read such a confident, captivating and complete Swedish debut as Jenny Åkervall s Jag tjänar inte. She has a background as a speech writer for [social democratic party leaders] Göran Persson and Mona Sahlin, which has given her insight into the scenery in the Cabinet Office. This makes the novel feel realistic and credible in everything from intrigue, power struggles and relationships with industry big shots to the vulnerability of being a public figure. /.../ The two tracks brush against each other in a sensitive matter, and the novel is a page-turner in the thriller-like depiction of the conditions of working life in a twisted society where humanity is tested. Add to it a clean finish, well composed! Norran

8 Fiction Välkommen ut på andra sidan Welcome to the Other Side by AnnaMaria Jansson January 2013, 357 pages Senior Editor: Susanna Romanus A page-turning chick lit about three young women and the crucial events that will change their lives. Welcome to the Other Side Malin threw an extra cardigan in the bag and put on the leather jacket and the black boots. If she were to go out partying tonight, she would have to change shoes. Boots would be far too boring, but she had a black pair of emergency pumps in the locker at work, those would make do. She fixed her hair quickly one last time in front of the hall mirror, and then she took her keys and put the iphone and lipgloss in the bag. April 14, what a bloody shit date. This story takes place in two big cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg. Malin, Lovisa and Sandra are all soon in their thirties, and they are all going through their own personal little hells. Malin is single and works at a restaurant. It is not always easy, but the co-workers are great. One night, after an enjoyable evening out with one of her colleagues, something happens to her that only ever happens to others, when someone she thought was a friend shows his real face. Lovisa is living a dream life. She has the perfect job, the most beautiful apartment and the greatest boyfriend in the world, Viktor. They are Viktor-and-Lovisa, and it is as it should be. But then one day everything falls to pieces, a friend has seen Viktor holding another girl, and their perfect happiness is no more. Sandra feels stuck, in more than one way, in life and in her stagnant relationship with Fredrik. Then someone notices the work she does at the office and she is offered a promotion, and Sandra realises that there might be more for her to grasp out there, if only she dares to make the move. continued >

9 fiction AnnaMaria Jansson AnnaMaria Jansson, born 1979, is a journalist living in Stockholm. Since 2006 she has worked as a sports reporter for numerous news papers and recently as a reporter and commentator as well as host on TV, experting on biathlon. Välkommen ut på andra sidan is Anna- Maria Jansson s debut as a novellist. Välkommen ut på andra sidan is a novel about three women getting through crises, which are both personal and common. It is a story with dark undertones and a strong message of female empowerment, and even happiness. It is a novel perfect for a young female readership, about the good and the bad in life, a book to take you by the hand and wish you welcome to the other side. Press voices: This is so easy to read that you just glide through the text. At the same time Anna- Maria Jansson has some things to say about the age in which she is living and she nails the dialog and the emotions bang-on. Aftonbladet Söndag Credible and close to reality, Jansson depicts the inner struggle that rape victims are often said to experience: Was it something to report? Did I myself have blame in what happened? /.../ It is a story right between Sex in the City and Lipstick Jungle, which despite some clichés will appeal to many for sure. Upsala Nya Tidning The novel is straightforward and fast-paced, and sometimes shows a surprisingly great psychological credibility Svenska Dagbladet AnnaMaria Jansson makes an honest attempt to deepen and darken the conventional chick lit story, and at times it is captivating. Helsingborgs Dagblad the dialog is realistic, right in the moment, well captured. And I like that AnnaMaria Jansson dares to include such a hard topic as rape and write about the psychological consequences of being raped. Borås Tidning

10 Fiction Darjeeling Mist Dimma över Darjeeling Darjeeling Mist By Mikael Bergstrand August 2013, 395 pages Senior Editor: Susanna Romanus Rights sold to: Aschehoug, Norway Modtryk, Denmark Option publishers: Bazar, Finland Gaïa, France Signatuur, the Netherlands Btb, Germany Piemme, Italy La Campana, Spain (Catalan) Alfaguara, Spain (Spanish) Once again we get to follow the adventures of Göran Borg and Yogendra Yogi Singh Thakur, this time they take us from the bustling Delhi life to the mist-clad mountains of Darjeeling. Göran Borg is back on Swedish soil and back in his old tracks. The revolutionary trip to India and his love affair with Preeti feel little more than distant memories, and he struggles with a general sense of anxiety and failure. But soon it is time, finally, for Yogi to marry the love of his life, Lakshmi, and Göran sees it as an excuse to leave town and some unresolved conflicts behind him. And Yogi is happy to see him and get some assistance with the big wedding preparations. To finance the wedding Yogi has bought a prosperous tea estate in Darjeeling for his father-in-law s money, and Göran goes with him to inspect it. But the seemingly easy deal with a quick refund turns out to be a con; there is indeed an estate, but in its state of decay it will not see profit any time soon. Yogi is defeated, without money he cannot marry Lakshmi, and he cannot return home to Delhi to his mother either. And Göran has to rush back to Sweden; otherwise he will lose his job. Once again, Göran lets the fear get the better of him. But what kind of friend is he to leave his best mate alone on a mismanaged tea estate to drink away his sorrows? At the airport Göran changes his mind and goes back to help Yogi, and together with the enterprising Lakshmi, who has travelled alone all across the country to see her beloved Yogi, they manage to turn things around at the estate and make their future look a lot brighter. Following the success with Delhis vackraste händer, Mikael Bergstrand is back with a new entertaining and adventurous novel continued >

11 fiction Mikael Bergstrand Mikael Bergstrand is a journalist and author from Malmö, in the south of Sweden. In 2007 he moved with his family to India and lived in New Delhi for almost four years, sharing his time between travelling, writing books and reporting on life and politics from the world s largest democracy. Since 2011 he lives in Sweden again, but still travels frequently to India. In 2011, Bergstrand published his first book at Norstedts, Delhis vackraste händer/ The Most Beautiful Hands in Delhi, which became a great success with more than copies sold to date. Foreign rights have been sold to nine countries. about prejudice and egoism, about getting out of old habits and about courage, loyalty and friendship. Press voices for Delhis vackraste händer: Bridget Jones goes 52-year-old flabby football nerd Tara Yogendra Singh Thakur, I would gladly meet him again. Sydsvenskan Incredibly funny book. I appoint it the next Centenarian-success. Radio P4, Värmland It is so joyful and entertaining to read. You are taken along on a delightful journey /.../ With a smile on your face you join Göran on his adventures. Radio P4, Halland the novel is a delightful comedy with touches of realism. Mikael Bergstrand is a master of dialogue, which characterises both Swedes and Indians and gives local colour to both their respective countries. Swedish Book Review (UK) Mikael Bergstrand writes flawlessly and straightforward, and he also has the environment to place his detailed descriptions in, as he himself has lived and worked in New Delhi for nearly four years. Delhis vackraste händer stands therefore as a glorious summer holiday fiction with something to say, no matter where or how your holiday goes. Jyllands-Posten, four stars (DK) Obviously he knows Delhi well and loves the city and its people. It is a pleasant, entertaining and certainly not stupid story. It s fun for once to see the world through pink-coloured glasses from Malmo. Politiken (DK) highly action-packed, readable and humorous /.../ with charm and good storytelling. Alt for damene (NO)

12 Fiction Plats Stay! by Pija Lindenbaum Spring 2013, 135 pages Senior Editor: Eva Gedin One of Sweden s best-selling and prize-awarded children s fiction authors makes her novel debut! Stay! My place is over there, to the right. Now, I m crossing the room. At first the sharp sound against the stone floor. The steps fall silent on the green rug. Something is chafing in the left shoe. She is an ordinary woman with an office job and a husband and a grown-up child. But something is off. Suddenly she finds herself in a state where everything feels foreign to her. Everyday meetings and situations become weird and intrusive. So one day she leaves her home and her work and barricades herself in a borrowed flat where she cuts off the outside world. Throws away her mobile phone and her computer. And gets a dog. Now it s just her and the dog. The much-loved children s book creator Pija Lindenbaum has finally made her debut as a novelist with a suggestive short novel about a middle-aged woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Lindenbaum s precise prose in short scenes screws itself in and down into a story with both comical and gripping blackness. Pija Lindenbaum graduated from the Stockholm College of Arts, Crafts and Design in 1979 and has since then worked as an artist, designer and author. She has created some of the most-loved Swedish picture books of the recent years, among them: Else-Marie och småpapporna/else-marie and the Seven Little Daddies; and Gittan och gråvargarna/bridget and the Grey Wolves. Lindenbaum s books are appreciated abroad as well. A number of them have been translated into English, Japanese, German, French and Dutch, among other languages. continued >

13 fiction Pija Lindenbaum Pija Lindenbaum was born and raised in Sundsvall, in the north of Sweden. She is one of Sweden s most renown children s fiction creators, and has been translated to several languages. During the years, Lindenbaum has been awarded many prestigious prizes, such as Illustrator of the Year at the Bologna Book Fair in 1993; the August Prize for Best Children s Book in 2000 (also short listed in 1993 and 1996); the Astrid Lindgren Prize in 2008; and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in Plats is Lindenbaum s very first novel for adults. Press voices: With Plats, Pija Lindenbaum in a way writes herself into the contemporary literary wave of books that portray women who get fed up of the claustrophobic family life / / But Lindenbaum would not be Lindenbaum if she did not take the twisted, surreal grip that is so characteristic of her children s books with her into the novel. /.../ Pija Lindenbaums debut novel is psychologically uncomfortable, sometimes surreal and often spot-on in dialogue and descriptions of emotional states. Expressen Pija Lindenbaum has a fine psychological insight, she describes a journey along the mined land that is both recognizable and repulsive as it tells of the forbidden and unacceptable within us. Plats is a debut that leaves you wanting more. Dala-Demokraten Lindenbaums poetic language evokes an oppressive atmosphere that becomes increasingly sinister, the longer the story progresses. I get more and more nervous about what will happen when she finally lets go and let the dark gush out for real. /... / Lindenbaum portrays all of this in such a strong and intense manner, that I feel almost breathless after reading. Litteraturmagazinet The dystopia Plats is about a nervous breakdown and an emotional breakdown in a desperate loneliness. Plats is just compact compressed text, no pictures. The interesting angles are found in the language. An absolutely fantastic language! Västerbottens-Kuriren

14 Fiction En storm kom från paradiset A Storm Blew in From Paradise by Johannes Anyuru September 2012, 248 pages Senior Editor: Håkan Bravinger Sample translation in English available Rights sold to: Btb, Germany Actes Sud, France Gyldendal, Denmark Press, Norway De Geus, the Netherlands World Editions, English (world) copies sold! Nominated for the Nordic Council s Literary Award! A Storm Blew in From Paradise He doesn t remember what has happened to him, what he s doing on this train. The full moon hangs low above the horizon, a gray disc. He can see the craters, the sandy seas. He doesn t remember who he is. The moon, it reminds him of something. Of clouds. Of the wind. He doesn t remember. He doesn t remember the story. A young man, P, is sitting in a small cage in a Tanzanian jail. His greatest dream is to fly. Up until quite recently everything had looked promising. He had come to Greece to be trained at the Hellenic Air Force Academy in Dhekelia, just outside Athens, chosen to be a pilot and an officer in the Ugandan Air Force. Soon he would be soaring through the skies in an unpainted, polished aluminium MIG-21. But then, on January 26, 1971, the news of a coup in his homeland reaches him. Idi Amin has taken power. Shortly thereafter all Ugandan aviation cadets are ordered home by Amin s state machine. It is at that moment that P makes his life s most crucial choice: to defect and stay in Greece. After that, nothing turns out like he imagined. He s not allowed to fly in Europe, and in despair he accepts a job in Zambia as a crop dusting pilot. But as he lands he is taken into custody and transported to a Tanzanian jail. P is afraid; afraid that he will be sent back to Uganda and be prosecuted for treason; afraid that he will die here without anybody knowing; afraid that they have already killed his family back home. Over a period of many years, we follow P s struggles as a refugee, as a military camp prisoner, as a man on the run. He never stops dreaming of a life as a pilot, but he ll never get to fly again. Johannes Anyuru has written a thrilling novel about his own father s fate, a read which stays with you for a long time. This is a novel about survival, and a continued >

15 fiction Johannes Anyuru Johannes Anyuru, born in 1979, made his debut in 2003 with the critically acclaimed collection of poems Det är bara gudarna som är nya/only The Gods Are New. En storm kom från paradiset is Anyuru s second novel and fifth book to date, and it was unanimously praised by the press. It has been awarded (among other prizes) with the Svenska Dagbladet Literature Prize and the Aftonbladet Literature Prize, as well as nominated for the August Prize 2012, the Nordic Council s Literary Award 2012, and Swedish Radio s Novel Prize haunting account of one man s unfulfilled dream to fly. Press voices: Johannes Anyuru, who since his debut in 2003 is one of the most well-known poets and prose writers of his generation, has now taken the fate of a refugee his father and created a literary masterpiece. Those are grand words, but En storm kom från paradiset is also a grand novel. Sydsvenskan A personal and universal novel about fatherlessness and identity, about the power of violence and about how we are all prisoners of time. Aftonbladet But you feel the breeze from the storm out of paradise, you feel the large movements, you feel the hypnotic effect of a prose that can make you visualize the Angel of History zooming in on a building in Växjö. It is fantastic. Expressen it is so beautiful. I forget that I am reading a novel, I get stuck in tiny details, everyday things, the description of the sun rising over Hisingen or setting in the ocean somewhere in Africa. /.../ Anyuru s language hurls itself, like the main character of this book, straight into the sun, burns and scorches. It is impressive that an action as spectacular and painful as this one can be tamed by a language, by the beauty of the words. Helsingborgs Dagblad He has found a fresh language, a running gait that feels light and quick, and when there are pauses, they are loaded and shimmering. Dagens Nyheter Basically, this is a song of sorrow, performed in bitter sweet prose, coming from a conscience rooted in both strength and indecisiveness. A dark story which breathes hope. A work of therapy of great artistic value. Hallands Nyheter

16 Fiction Sörja för de sina Caring for One s Own by Kristina Sandberg August 2012, 490 pages Senior Editor: Eva Gedin Sample translation in English of Att föda ett barn/giving Birth is available Rights sold to: Pantagruel, Norway Caring for One s Own Everything ought to be better now. Her husband Tomas has managed to remain sober after being treated with hypnoses by Dr. Bjerre. And Maj is doing everything she can for the family to have a nice home and to be a perfect housewife. But she feels like she will never live up to the high expectations real and imagined of her husband and his mother Thea. Maj is a young stay-at-home mother and wife in the welfare state of the 40 s and 50 s when the housewife was still a desirable ideal and seen as an important profession. She tries hard to be loving towards her children, and ensure that the home will be secure, harmonious and flawless. But when the fatigue, fear and anxiety overpowers her, her doubts and her obsessiveness set in nothing she or her family does seem good enough. Tomas is struggling to refrain from alcohol, and manage the company inherited by his family, but the suspicion that perhaps he started drinking again hangs heavily over Maj and the family. Her personal losses Maj doesn t even want to think about. This is the second part in Kristina Sandberg s novel trilogy, which began with Att föda ett barn, about a housewife s life in Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden. Maj s story is one about motherhood, womanhood and living with alcoholism, her personal struggles in a changing world. It is an intimate portrayal of an unhappy woman which lingers in the reader s mind. Press voices for Sörja för de sina: What impresses the most is the ability to build excitement around a life that on the surface appears to be fairly uneventful. Some readers of this review might sigh but that story, we have surely read before or mutter something about boring Swedish realism. Dismiss all such thoughts immediately! Believe me when I say that Sörja för de sina, as well as Att föda ett barn (even if you don t continued >

17 fiction Kristina Sandberg Kristina Sandberg, born in 1971, was raised in Sundsvall, but is now living in Stockholm. She made her debut in 1997 with the novel I vattnet flyter man/in The Water One Floats. Sörja för de sina is her fifth novel, and the second in a trilogy that began with the critically acclaimed Att föda ett barn (2010). Att föda ett barn has sold more than copies to date. need to have read the predecessor to read this) is a real page-turner, that kind of novel that occupies the reader, with characters who creep close and stubbornly linger in the mind after you have (reluctantly) closed the book. Svenska Dagbladet Deafeningly dramatic about the housewife /.../ In the same way that Kristina Sandberg makes the novel s underlying anxiety reflect Maj s inner trembling, the unravelling is congenial after have moved in Maj s psyche for most of the nearly five hundred pages, it s with Tomas narrative perspective that the book is closed. Maj is left alone beyond our point of view. Peripheral, like the housewife, noticeable only when the work is not done properly. Västerbottens-Kuriren Kristina Sandberg has really managed to write a dense continuation to the story of May Dagens Nyheter Sandberg is an evocative storyteller whose sentences almost crawl under the skin of the reader. Her stories are needed. Upsala Nya Tidning Press voices for Att föda ett barn: I could never imagine that one day I would sit deep in a 500-page novel about household chores and infant care. That Kristina Sandberg manages to pull that somewhat hypnotic trick off /.../ is essentially down to the narrative technique. I await, with a suspense I could never have foreseen, the story s continuation. Expressen The condensed nature of the text forms an immediate flow which the reader is sucked into without resistance. It is complex but not complicated, and it confirms Kristina Sandberg s position as one of the most sensitive psychological realists in contemporary Swedish fiction. Svenska Dagbladet

18 Fiction Alltings början The Beginning of Everything by Karolina Ramqvist September 2012, 372 pages Senior Editor: Eva Gedin Sample translation in English available Rights sold to: Tiderne Skifter, Denmark More than copies sold The Beginning of Everything Saga remembers only too well the moment of her arrival. It would be strange if she didn t; every birthday her mother shows her the film of her birth, the moment when the tiny child who would become Saga was pushed into the world. Saga has longed for everything adult life has to offer. Her mother is an artist and a radical feminist and as the daughter of such a woman she is expected to be independent and take advantage of everything life has to offer. This is Stockholm in the 1990s and Saga starts a new school and quickly makes friends. They spend their days drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and they go to clubs whenever they can get in. But Saga is plagued by a nagging sense of futility and the feeling that she ought to be doing something, like her mother s generation with their feminist movement, demonstrating for free abortion and nursery care. They had a goal and a purpose; Saga feels her generation is lacking exactly that. Saga and her friend Pauline spend a lot of time getting to know the right people; they sleep around, they party, they are free. For some time Saga has had Viktor Schantz in her sights. He is older, knows everyone and more to the point everyone wants to know him. They begin a relationship. Or rather, he allows her to have sex with him. He commands, she obeys. Their relationship is secret, destructive and degrading. There are other men in her life but the only one she really wants to be with is Viktor. Karolina Ramqvist s new novel Alltings början is the story of a young woman s passage through the stages of her youth, as she takes her first steps away from childhood and is hurtled into an independent adult life. Written with boldness and clarity, this is continued >

19 fiction Karolina Ramqvist Karolina Ramqvist, born in 1976, is a journalist and author. For a long time she has been a powerful voice in social debate. She has written for Swedish national daily Dagens Nyheter and the magazine Bang. She has also been editor in chief of Arena magazine. Her latest book Flickvännen/ The Girlfriend, 2009, was nominated for Sveriges Radio s Novel Prize and awarded Vi Magazine s literature prize. It has been translated into several languages. Alltings början is her fourth book and by many acclaimed to be the ultimate novel of her generation. about a generation trapped between spoken and unspoken demands, and marked by a feeling of abandonment. Press voices: I close Karolina Ramqvist s Alltings början and think: Hallelujah, my generation novel has come. Sydsvenskan Karolina Ramqvist writes Saga s teenage know-it-all uncertainty in a genius way. She is simply hilarious and the text flows easily. The narrator Saga is self-evident; she drinks and reads and fucks and blushes, and gets a headache from tightening her face to look more attractive. She is also congenial with the time, the 1990s that was so promising and fin-de-siecle-decadent at the same time. Swedish Radio s Kulturnytt Somehow Ramqvist writes sadly establishing and unconscionable and amusingly sarcastic at the same time. /.../ What can surely be described as seedy and demeaning encounters, Ramqvist manages to make beautiful, without it feeling particularly mendacious or idealized. A bit like what Marguerite Duras does when she creates her truth about the teenage affair with the wealthy Chinese in The Sea Wall and The Lover. I really admire Ramqvist s way to handle this story. Both its banality and its tragedy. Aftonbladet It is a feminist novel of ideas, written with such incredible ease and it is also an absolutely wonderful description of an era. /.../ Saga is a modern contemporary flaneur who helps herself and has a very exciting relation to her own desire, her sexuality. I don t think it has been written that way about female sexuality before. SVT Kulturnyheterna A brilliant 90s depiction Tara Magazine

20 Fiction Jag ringer mina bröder I m Calling My Brothers I m Calling My Brothers by Jonas Hassen Khemiri October 2012, 128 pages Senior Editor: Stephen Farran-Lee, Albert Bonniers Förlag Complete English translation available Rights sold to: Gyldendal, Norway Minumsa, Korea Actes Sud, France Previous works sold to: Gyldendal, Denmark De Geus, Holland Piper Verlag, Germany Roca, Spain Ugo Guanda, Italy Knopf, USA et al A car has exploded in Stockholm. The novel s I, Amor, wanders around in a city that has been paralyzed by paranoia. Amor is on his way to make a complaint about a damaged drill head. And he will answer when Shavi calls. He will stop stalking his friend Valeria, and he will comfort his grandmother who died long ago. Most importantly: he cannot attract any suspicious glances. But he is plagued by paranoia and delusions and thinks that others may see him as a potential perpetrator. For 24 intense hours we are in Amor s head where the boundaries between criminal and victim, love and chemistry, fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred. Jag ringer mina bröder is a scary but also humorous depiction of how paranoia destroys both the person seen and the seer. This is Jonas Hassen Khemiri s much longed-for return to prose and it will also be staged in spring Khemiri is one of Sweden s most acclaimed and widely read young authors and playwrights. He has been nominated for the August Award and received Borås Tidnings Debut Award, Swedish Radio s Novel Award, Vi Magazine s Literature Prize and PO Enquist s award. The novels Ett öga rött and Montecore have been translated into several languages and his debut play Invasion! became an international success performed in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Norway and in the US, where it received an Obie Award for best screenplay in Press voices: It is a fantastic book. The words are ejected as sounds: cell phone signals, the sound of traffic, sirens, footsteps. You want to read it out loud. Society begins inside our bodies, continued >

21 fiction Jonas Hassen Khemiri Jonas Hassen Khemiri, born in 1978, made a celebrated debut in 2003 with Ett öga rött/one Eye Red, which sold more than copies in Sweden and became the best selling paperback His second novel, Montecore, was published to unanimous raving reviews in Since then Khemiri has also established himself internationally as a playwright. Jag ringer mina bröder is Jonas Hassen Khemiri s third novel. that is where fear grows, that is where battles take place. The pulse of the societal body rises from this little book. Kulturnyheterna SVT With Jag ringer mina bröder Jonas Hassen Khemiri highlights his position as one of Sweden s greatest equilibrists and the cleverest observer of the relationship between identity and society in contemporary literature. Hurray for this. Expressen He has perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue, and when he stays entirely behind the quotation marks, his writing becomes absolutely brilliant. Dagens Nyheter From a larger national perspective and eventually also international, this micro-political bomb is an incredibly important contribution to the literary debate. What can literature do about inequalities in the world? How can it call to action? Inform? Can literature once again climb up on the barricades? Can we begin talking about progressive authors who both write and act politically in the way that Camus, Sartre, De Beauvoir and Duras did during the ideological storms of the 50s, 60s and 70s? We are not yet there. But Jonas Hassen Khemiri s book is definitely a step in that direction. Göteborgs-Posten With rhythmic language and often witty formulations this short story dances forward in a syncopated jazz beat. Herein, in a far-off future, lies perhaps the only thing equal for all: language. Aftonbladet [Khemiri] is no longer just the author portraying the New Sweden. And he is definitely not a spokesperson for minorities. He is one of the foremost authors of his generation. Sydsvenskan

22 Fiction Friheten förde oss hit The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here by Gunnar Ardelius March 2012, 208 pages Senior Editor: Håkan Bravinger Extensive summary and sample translation in English available Rights sold to: Actes Sud, France The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here The sweat ran down their backs. The long journey from an icy and chilly Stockholm was over; they had arrived in Yekepa. The powerful sun beat down on patches of unprotected skin and the dust settled quickly again on the ground. Like a herd of frightened animals they clung close together. Hektor, Margret and their teenage son Mårten have just landed in Liberia. It is the end of the 1960s and Hektor is about to start his new job with the Swedish mining company LAMCO. The journey carried with it the promise of a new start but he soon realises that his career at the mine will not be straightforward. He is alarmed by the management s attitude towards the locals and unofficial strike action is looming. Margret is unhappy in her new environment and finds the Liberians both frightening and exasperating. The heat is oppressive, her ner- ves are in shreds and she misses her lover Axel back in Sweden. The only member of the family to feel at home in the new country is seventeen-year-old Mårten. He soon befriends the Snake Boy, the family s unconventional gardener, and meets red-haired Ingela who loves Hitchcock and The Saint. Mårten is living in a new era; he believes in change and in the international solidarity of the proletariat, and he sides with the Liberians against the colonialists. However, his conviction and naiveté inevitably drive events to the verge of catastrophe and put the whole family and the Snake Boy in danger. Friheten förde oss hit, the story of a Swedish family s destiny in 1960s Liberia, is intensely gripping with its sense of foreboding and is a fascinating documentation of an often overlooked part of contemporary Swedish history. continued >

23 fiction Gunnar Ardelius Gunnar Ardelius (born in 1981) made his debut with the YA novel Jag behöver dig mer än jag älskar dig.../i Need You More Than I Love You... The book has been translated into several languages including English, French and German. It was nominated for the August Prize and won the Slangbellan Prize for best debut. Friheten förde oss hit is Gunnar Ardelius fourth novel, the first aimed at adult readers. Ardelius was appointed chairman for the Swedish Writers Union in May Press voices: The novel is a quiet gem, continuously moving, very melancholy. Göteborgs-Posten an exciting novel, vividly formed with a drive which also gives a realistic image of what it could actually be like for a Swedish family in Africa in the 1960s. And he writes a precise, nuanced Swedish with at times original metaphors, without any hint of cliché or repetition. Helsinborgs Dagblad [Ardelius] writes tersely and deliciously dry, but sometimes he lets go of objectivity and allows the text to flow out into poetry. It s often touchingly beautiful Sydsvenskan Ardelius risky, yet ingeniously simple imagery and his timing takes my breath away, like when the revolutionary Mårten cockily argues that one must break some eggs to make an omelette, while what will be his life s greatest egg breaking trauma is going on at the same moment, without his knowledge. Dagens Nyheter his story has such a presence and intimacy with the events that I constantly have to remind myself that the story is not self-experienced by the author, because Gunnar Ardelius allows me as a reader to crawl under the skin of the characters. I can for example feel Hector s ambivalence towards his employer s personnel policies and Margret s restlessness and frustration which is channelled into an unreasoning hatred against the Snake Boy. /.../ Friheten förde oss hit is a well-written, readable and important story Skånska Dagbladet Friheten förde oss hit invokes both the stand still in Revolutionary Road and the power of Henning Mankell s commitment to the Third World. Arbetarbladet

24 Fiction No Child s Land Ingenbarnsland No Child s Land by Eija Hetekivi Olsson Januari 2012, 324 pages Senior Editor: Susanna Romanus English sample available Rights sold to: Schildts & Söderströms, Finland Cappelen Damm, Norge Nominated for the August Prize 2012 and the Swedish Radio s Novel Prize Awarded the Stig Sjödin Prize 2012 and the Katapult Award for Best Debut Novel 2012! More than copies sold. The parks are littered with trash; the streets are covered with cigarette butts. The bins outside the school are on fire, and so is the rage inside Miira. Asphalt court yards, concrete buildings and faces hard as stone. The place is called Gårdsten, a suburb outside Gothenburg, just like any other working-class suburb outside any other town. Bored teenagers, junkies and alcoholics share the semi-empty squares and staircases. The litterbins outside the school are on fire, and so is the rage inside Miira. Miira is not like the other kids in the class; shoved together because of similar backgrounds, pre-determined by the school as future cleaners and industrial workers. Miira wants to become a prime minister or a brain surgeon when she grows up. She alone chooses advanced math in school and shoplifts medical books to study at home. She goes to England to study English, but clashes with the English school system and ends up just partying instead. She is the kind of girl who never backs down from a fight, who won t giggle when guys grope her, who won t accept any injustices around her. But she is also heavily weighed down by the burden of her own class she wants to be better, to do better, but the society won t always let her. This is a no child s land, cemented by blunt bureaucracy and suppressed dreams. Eija Hetekivi Olsson s eye-opening debut novel Ingenbarnsland is set in the Gothenburg suburbs in the 80s, and we follow the girl Miira from her preadolescence to her becoming a young woman. Hetekivi Olsson writes expressively and with rarely seen intensity; like a welding flame the novel depicts Sweden after the Welfare State. The portrait of Miira is one of the strongest in recent years fiction. continued >

25 fiction Eija Hetekivi Olsson Eija Hetekivi Olsson, born in 1973, grew up in the Gothenburg suburbs Gårdsten and Bergsjön. She has worked as a cleaner and as a waitress, before studying to become a teacher. Ingenbarnsland is her literary debut, for which she received a nomination for the August Prize The novel has also been nominated for the Swedish Radio s Novel Prize 2013 and been awarded the Katapult Award for Best Debut Novel 2012, as well as the Stig Sjödin Prize Press voices: Reading Ingenbarnsland is like being flung round in a centrifuge. The world is not the same afterwards. Norrköpings Tidningar This is a ferociously strong debut/ / seldom have I read such a translucent, acute and contemporary description of the extreme vulnerability of children who live an unprotected life Dagens Nyheter A pulsating rage that is the force behind the novel Ingenbarnsland and it drives the story on at a hell of a pace. It drags and tears at female protagonist Miira s young body. What Hetekivi Olsson contributes to the existing literature about the Swedish housing programme of the 60s and 70s (known as Miljonprogrammet) is a version of the language that is her very own, along with an intense energy and dislocated world view that this language so loyal to the protagonist creates. Here Miira s rage is such a wonderfully hopeful force, fighting its way through a tangle of groping older men, mocking teachers and a dreary vulnerability that would contrive to stop her from sticking her nose outside the concrete ghetto and amazing the world. Sveriges Radio Kulturnytt Ingenbarnsland with its grim realism is a wonderful debut novel, filled with extreme linguistic fantasy and with an intelligently executed street view of Swedish class-based society of 25 years ago. I doubt it looks any different today. In an interview I read that Eija Hetekivi Olsson is burning with desire to write more books. Good! I really want to read more of her work! Skånska Dagbladet Eija Hetekivi Olsson has a voice all of her own in which Gothenburg dialect and wit are combined with vulgarity and Finnish profanities, and with every sentence the reader is shaken by its brutal directness and energy. Norrköpings Tidningar

26 Fiction Den sista dagen i december The Last Day of December by Mariette Glodeck October 2012, 230 pages Senior Editor: Eva Gedin Love, angst and longing! The Last Day of December A bride-to-be, a father-by-mistake, a snob from the suburbs, a film director, a drunkard, a lesbian wannabe, a reluctant pop-princess and a poo prince. This is how one could describe Milla, Måns, Carl, Jens, Pepsi, Tove, Frida and Teddy. Eight long-time friends in their thirties, who don t see each other as often as they perhaps would have liked to anymore. Frida has spent the last year in the tour bus, hiding her real feelings behind her on-stage persona, just as she hides cheap romance novels behind the cover of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy. Måns is cultivating his bachelor lifestyle, still working late nights behind a bar counter, until suddenly a girl he barely knows tells him she s pregnant. Teddy has taken over his father s firm, emptying portaloos from sports events and festivals, and Tove is struggling with her medical studies, as well as with her sexuality. But when they do see each other it usually feels like nothing has changed. To everyone s surprise Milla is getting married and the gang meets up on a cruise for a joint hen/ stag party. For Milla the party turns into her worst nightmare, she s convinced her future sister-in-law is trying to demean her, and the others don t seem to notice a thing. Den sista dagen i december is a novel about relationships, friendships and other disasters. It s a warm and entertaining novel about a group of people who are at a stage in life where the choices you make and the friends you have are more important than ever before. continued >