original 00-11-07 10.22 Sida 1 on Mats Gustafss Lars Niemi Mikael Mirja Unge Holmberg Bo R Christine Falkenland Christine Ann-Marie Ljungberg Hans Olsson öm Pernilla Thor Annika Moni Nilsson-Brännstr Kihlgård Peter New Swedish Titles 2000

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The Swedish Institute

To read literature solely as though it were a mirror of society and its interpreters would be a precarious business, as Ingrid Elam points out at the beginning of her article on new Swedish prose. On the other hand, Kajsa Lindsten Öberg demonstrates that literature, be it for adults or for children, is not entirely uninfluenced by current affairs. Mirror or not, the following two articles about recent Swedish titles identify themes connected with public debate, but also include some exposing testimonies about the most private sphere. There is a mounting international interest in . Swedish books are found on bestseller and “critics’ choice” charts all over the world, and the publication of translations is no longer limited to a handful of specialist publishers. Bidding for titles occurs more and more often, even for translations of previously unpublished writers. Ingrid Elam and Kajsa Lindsten Öberg have been requested to com- ment on this year’s published books for the Frankfurt Book Fair 2000. The selection of titles and the opinions are entirely their own. The com- ments are usually short but will hopefully encourage further reading. For more information about the authors, we refer you to each respective publisher. Information about funding of translations can be obtained from the Swedish Institute.

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New Swedish Fiction

by Ingrid Elam

f literature were a mirror-like reality. In other words, this literature On the whole, younger women writers I reflection of reality, then the portrays its own time in a warped mirror, favour setting their stories in the margins of women writers who emerged in where certain features are grotesquely enlar- the welfare state, just outside the big city in the final years of the 20th century must have ged and emphasised, at the expense of which one of this spring’s new male writers, grown up under exceptionally atrocious con- others. In this year’s literary mirror, we can CLAES CARLSSON, lets his drug addicts, ditions, since practically every novel is about conclude that the family is still in a crisis, procurers and forlorn young people move to young girls being exposed to physical vio- and that the welfare state is rather under the the beat of Smashing Pumpkins or Human lence, incest, sadistic sexuality and bullying. weather too. Where Unge’s first book League and conjure up intrigues inspired by The atmosphere can only be characterised portrayed a home that was a virtual minefi- soap operas. Lång fin blond (Tall Fine as one of powerlessness, and the perspective eld, where the casual remark could trigger a Blonde) is the title of his novel. PETER LUCAS was strictly personal, not to say private: The catastrophe, her new book is a biting report ERIXON, who has published several novels young female prose writer looked inwards, at from the small-town football stands and and volumes of poetry, also uses the city as her own self, or possibly at her immediate fast-food counters, a hotbed for racism and the background for his novel Röster och family. violence, partly because so many keep silent brus. The New York Tapes (Voices and Noise. This year, the first of the new millenni- in the face of a bellowing handful. ÅSA The New York Tapes), which reproduces um, several younger writers of fiction are LANTZ’S second book, Splitta nota (Split the material from a tape recorder placed in the opening their doors to the outside world, so Bill), is also about what happens when vio- middle of New York City. many of them that I dare call it a trend. lence and cruelty are met with silence – and ANNE-MARIE LJUNGBERG, on the other MIRJA UNGE made her debut in 1998 what happens to those who dare speak up. hand, follows a few individuals in the geo- with a prize-winning story of growing up Like many contemporary authors, Åsa Lantz graphical and social outskirts of the big city and family life, Det var ur munnarna orden avails herself of the detective story form. in her novel Färjenäs. Färjenäs in Gothenburg kom (The Words Came Out of the Mouths). The book is about a crime that is being inve- is one of those non-places that are found in Her second novel, Järnnätter (Frosty Nights), stigated, but it is equally about the guilt fee- all major cities, near bridge abutments, in is also about a young girl in a harsh envi- lings of the “detective” – a mother – and of the periphery of industrial sites, behind

Mirja Unge Åsa Lantz Claes Carlsson

ronment, but the narrator is older, on her her suspected son. He has already been con- railway stations or between motorway way out into the social periphery, where victed for murder, is in prison and refuses to ramps. Here, water and electricity have been language is rough and impoverished, where speak. She questions her past as a socially cut off and windows and doorways boarded dark-skinned girls with immigrant back- critical and revealing artist, and therein up. This is the abode of the unemployed and grounds are called Turkish whores, where finds the cause of her son’s fate. the homeless, those who are not sure where the unemployed squander their days on The moral issues (the children of the they are headed, and where nature can sud- booze and white-supremacy music. In 1968 generation are consumed by their denly break through the concrete, and the 3 Unge’s world, as in the world of many parents’ rebellion?) is perhaps not described lifestyle of former times can take over. young writers, unemployment, homeless- with sufficient analytical depth, but it puts Ljungberg’s narrative voice is adjusted to the ness, divorce and stepfamilies are more the old slogan of the personal being political subject: slowly and meticulously she relates common than in statistically measurable in a new, younger perspective. small events in the grey everyday existence

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Cecilia Bornäs Mikael Niemi

that is whiled away with gaming, conversa- tion that makes it a pleasure to read while and on Earth). This year, in a novel, Min son tion and the hunt for a hot meal. reminding us of the melancholy fact that fäktas mot världen, (My Son Wrestles with This spring, CECILIA BORNÄS published one of ’s most well-beloved narrators the World), he mingles fiction with reality. A her first novel, which deals with being an died this year. story about two fathers and their sons in a outsider on a veritably allegorical level. The Novels about childhood and growing up village in southern Sweden is interlaced narrator in Jag Jane (Me Jane) is none other constitute a vital literary sub-category with the story of Ranelid and his son, as it than Tarzan’s Jane, who looks back on a long throughout Europe, but the question is emerges out of some correspondence. It is and lonely life among the foreign and whether this is not in fact the most impor- the father who writes to the son about good uncomprehending creatures of the jungle. tant genre in Swedish literature, from and evil, guilt and guiltlessness and other Strindberg to our days. Young writers such opposites that are typical of this consciously »The episodes are burlesque, as Niemi and Unge continue to favour sub- stylistic and lofty writer, who shuns the com- at times grotesque, and ject matter that they are intimate with and monplace and either demonises human profoundly knowledgeable about – what it is beings and the world, or idealises them. encompass everything that like to become an adult – and older writers In his first novel in seven years, Samma a southerner would expect sooner or later choose to look back on their sol som vår (Same Sun as Ours), PER GUNNAR of a story set in northern own lives. This year, several of Sweden’s EVANDER also blends his own history with a most popular and most productive authors fictitious story about a dead grandfather’s Sweden: churchgoing, sauna, have written autobiographical novels or a longing. deluges of alcohol and abys- mixture of novel and autobiography. LARS A more provocative exploitation of the GYLLENSTEN, who in protest left his seat in individual self is found in CARINA RYDBERG’S mal silences.« the , came out with Minnen, writings. When her previous novel, Den The greatest narrative zest in the young- bara minnen (Memories, Just Memories). högsta kasten (The Highest Caste, 1997), was er generation, at least judging by this year’s This is a biography that says very little about published, it generated heated debate about publications, seems to be found in the very the writer Gyllensten, but all the more about art and ethics. The novel portrays the rejec- north of Sweden. The poet MIKAEL NIEMI’S the man. Above all, he settles his accounts ted love of the author for an authentic man, first novel, published this autumn, Populär- with enemies and adversaries in the media and her encounters with other people who musik från Vittula (Popular Music from world, and writer colleagues within and out- are named and/or identifiable to a small cir- Vittula), is a story of growing up in a region side the Academy. In Svart asfalt grönt gräs cle of people in . ‘Is it permissib- where Swedish is the second language and (Black Tarmac Green Grass), le to expose real people in that way?’ several Tornedal Finnish is the mother tongue. We relates his childhood in the rural county of critics asked, often without reflecting that follow “Mikael” and his very tongue-tied and Västergötland and the wooden shacks of the narrator herself is examined and sacrifi- religiously brought-up friend Niila from south Stockholm. Since his debut in 1956, ced more ruthlessly than any of the other pre-school age up to their teenage years. The Claesson has written more than 70 novels characters. This autumn, Rydberg returns episodes are burlesque, at times grotesque, about the transformation of Sweden from a with a new autobiographical novel, Djävuls- and encompass everything that a southerner farming nation to a welfare state, and the formeln (The Devil’s Formula), in which she would expect of a story set in northern price of modernisation in the form of loneli- again scrutinises the less endearing sides of Sweden: churchgoing, sauna, deluges of ness, loss of orientation and of values. her own character. alcohol and abysmal silences. Niemi writes Looking back on his own life in that per- In addition to the child and oneself, the himself into a tradition with roots in Alexis spective, he now aims at something beyond family continues to provide the form and Kivi’s Finnish classic Sju Bröder (Seven the autobiographical, and many people will content for narratives about social develop- Brothers), but in a way that leaves the reader recognise themselves in the portrayal of the ments, moral issues, togetherness and lone- 4 in fruitful uncertainty: is he pulling our leg character who is a stranger in his own era, a liness. Here are a few examples from this or is life really that chillingly hot north of the portrait that goes beyond what is specific for autumn’s new titles: KERSTIN STRANDBERG’S Arctic Circle? Niemi’s ability to characterise Sweden. BJÖRN RANELID published an auto- Tio syskon i en ömtålig historia (Ten Siblings tragicomic situations, not to say people, is biography last year, Till alla människor i him- in a Fragile Tale) chronicles a business clan. reminiscent of Göran Tunström, an associa- len och på jorden (To All People in Heaven PETER MOSSKIN’S Där stäppen tar slut (Where

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»In several novels she has something admirably uncompromising and meticulously probed every yet evasive about ’s narrative stance that is especially congenial to the sub- nook and cranny of the ject of this novel. bourgeois family interior. Where Carola Hansson’s female narrator is in quest of knowledge about a who father She registers every slightest she thinks she knew all her life, two of this nuance, nothing happens autumn’s male novel characters are sear- while panic surges…« ching for a father they have never seen. The middle-aged Bertold – after Brecht – in the Stepp Ends) is the third part of a story STAFFAN SEEBERG’S Ariadnes spår (The Trail about a Jewish immigrant family. In her of Ariadne) has been told by his mother that fourth novel, Dom (Them), CILLA NAUMANN he was conceived when she spent a stormy writes about the loneliness and the secrets winter’s night with a nameless stranger. that can be contained in the small nuclear One day, he happens to read a short story in PC Jersild family. a magazine that relates exactly the story his The contemporary Swedish author mother has always told him. Bertold now engineering are lurking behind the satire. whose preoccupation with the family per- begins to search for his father in other trivi- KJELL JOHANSSON, who related an auto- haps goes beyond that of any other writer is al novels by the same author, and readers biographical tale of father and son in a tra- CAROLA HANSSON. In several novels she has who accompany him on the hunt are tossed ditional working-class environment in his meticulously probed every nook and cranny between excerpts from fictive pulp novels previous novel Huset vid Flon (The House by of the bourgeois family interior. She regis- and Bertold’s own story of how he pieces the River), in his latest book – a satirical ters every slightest nuance, nothing hap- together his own identity. Seeberg’s play cock-and-bull story – also attacks contem- pens while panic surges and we do the with the putatively trivial and “real” literatu- porary Sweden with its welfare money crossword in the conservative daily paper, re challenges the demarcation-line between embezzlers and tax evaders who take advan- have a dry martini and reiterate the phrases truth and illusion in an era when fictive and tage of the democratic system. In a series of that have been said so many times before. documentary soaps attract the same audien- novels under the collective title “Glömskans Den älskvärde (The Loveable), is her latest ce that also reads modernist prose experi- tid” (Age of Forgetting), has novel. It could just as well have been titled ments. The main character in PC JERSILD’S indulged in a sharp and occasionally queru- “The Absent”, because it is about a father new novel, Ljusets drottning (Queen of Light), lous journey through the inferno of who has been dead for many years before discovers on the death of his mother that he modern-day society. In this autumn’s novel, his daughter dares ask herself what she was not at all adopted as she always claimed, Voltaires resa (Voltaire’s Journey) he chooses actually knew about him. The answer is next but her biological child. But with whom? to regard Europe, and particularly Sweden, through the eyes of the philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment as he may have seen things had he risen from the dead today – equipped with more of Espmark’s causticity and less of Candide’s esprit. This autumn will also see the publishing of a book about Voltaire by one of Sweden’s most engaging writers of monographs on great men, CARL- GÖRAN EKERWALD. What remains of the welfare state that the older generation built up – and whose birth pains and middle-age crisis have been described in Swedish fiction over the past fifty years? This is a question returns to again and again in the Cilla Naumann Carola Hansson three novels she has written so far. Her to nothing. As she starts investigating, spea- And who was his mother really? We are latest, Slumpvandring (Random Rambling), king to her mother and siblings, former col- given the answer to that question after a circles round the character types we recog- leagues of her father, business associates, quest that develops into a detective search nise from her previous books: the superfici- friends, it emerges that no one knows much among stock exchange prices and test tube ally successful climber, who has gained an and that what one remembers does not tally laboratories. As in so many of his previous education, husband and kids and some with what others know or think they know. novels, Jersild combines an engaging and degree of wealth, the somewhat bitter and Between the lines of this rather claustropho- entertaining narrative style with issues that narrow-minded character who has remai- bic and cleverly revealed family history, we are current and urgent to large audiences. ned in her place of birth, and finally, the sense another story about a collectively He has a keen eye for the aspects of democ- black sheep, the sister who has got out of the 5 repressed memory: Sweden’s actions during racy that invite criticism and ridicule, but a rat-race entirely and opted out of the labour the Second World War, especially with great deal of dark pondering over the market and welfare system, an unmarried regard to the treatment of Jewish citizens existential terms inherent both in newer mother burdened with alcohol problems. All and their property. There has always been ways of co-existence and in modern genetic three have to pay for the freedom that

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Henning Mankell Håkan Nesser

women in particular attained during the lat- Fredrikshald (Ten Days in Fredrikshald). mention yet another example among the ter half of the 20th century, and in Both the detective story and the histori- plethora of books. Axelsson’s novel, they are all incorporated in cal novel lend themselves amenably to soci- History is not always political. When one large family, where the men appear al criticism and analyses of contemporary AGNETA PLEIJEL moves on historical and nebulous in comparison with the many attitudes and lifestyles. foreign ground in her novel of ideas Lord colourful women. already has a long series of very successful Nevermore, she investigates an issue that is 25 years ago, the favoured route of any books about the police inspector Wallander both more intimate and larger, universal. Swedish writer wishing to scrutinise con- under his belt now that he publishes a histo- Two young Poles, the famous anthropologist temporary society would have gone via the rical novel, Vindens son (Son of the Wind), Brinislaw Malinowsky and his close friend documentary or historical novel. The pre- about an adventurer and entomologist who Stanislaw, journey into the world at the sent is more distinct when seen in a distant travels to Africa and returns with a black boy beginning of the 1900s, towards different who is placed with a family of farmers in futures. They never meet again, but are fore- »Den oövervinnerlige (The southern Sweden, thereby triggering a cour- ver bound to one another. Pleijel uses their Invincible), chronicles se of events with a deadly outcome. JAN respective fates to embody the conflicts that GUILLOU has abandoned the thriller genre in have characterised a whole century. The Dahlberg’s further adventu- favour of the historical novel. In his third novel ponders the universal issues of the res and also portrays one of and final novel in the series about the knight (im)possibility of love and Man’s inability to Sweden’s least famed kings, Arn, Riket vid vägens slut (The Nation at the End of the Road), he joins the ranks of »On the whole, the tradi- Charles X, who succeeded Swedish amateur historians who claim that tionally narrative and charac- Queen Christina.« Sweden’s emergence as a national state began in the county of Västergötland in the terising novel has a surpris- mirror, or in fictive or real archive dust. A 12th century rather than in the Stockholm ingly strong position in new significant number of this year’s novels, region. While Guillou poses questions about Swedish literature.« however, are set in an entirely contempora- popular power and national identity, ry, “live broadcast” environment. One excep- Mankell moves in the same domain, albeit understand and come near Woman, the tion is , who delivers the limiting himself more to individual identity contradiction between reason and feeling second part of his suite of novels about and belonging. and, not least, the stranger that is one’s own “Sweden’s period as a great power” – the However, the straightforward detective self. 17th century – and “a man in its midst”. In novel remains a popular genre, also among On the whole, the traditionally narrative the first book, Ofredsår (Years of Warfare), younger authors who made their debut with and characterising novel has a surprisingly the warlord and architect Eric Dahlberg was a more traditional psychological story or a strong position in new Swedish literature. the central character. His latest novel, Den novel of manners. BARBARA VOORS immedi- Very little is seen of the formal experiments, oövervinnerlige (The Invincible), chronicles ately gained a large audience when she the broken-up chronology and montages of Dahlberg’s further adventures and also departed from the psychological novel and previous decades. The “Post-Modern” novel portrays one of Sweden’s least famed kings, instead wrote a detective story. This autum- is conspicuously absent. When, for instance, Charles X, who succeeded Queen Christina. n’s Sömnlös (Sleepless) is a story of suspense ARIS FIORETOS, who has previously written Englund is a historian by profession, but he about a past crime that begins to resurface in a style that blends fiction with essay, is also a lively narrator who knows his dangerously after many years. In this year’s publishes his latest book this autumn, Walter Scott and acknowledges that history detective story by HÅKAN NESSER, Ewa Stockholm Noir, it is an entirely traditional is best related with the aid of more unassu- Morenos fall (Ewa Moreno’s Case), Inspector novel, a veritable pastiche on the 19th cen- 6 ming characters to identify with – the men Van Veeteren has been replaced by a female tury epic, with a rather jauntily commenta- in the midst of the era. BJÖRN HOLM immer- colleague. The scene of the crime is the ting narrator. Stockholm Noir is formally old- ses himself in a later phase of history, the same as before: a fictive Maardam. THEODOR fashioned, while being a branch on a (new) year of Charles XII’s death, 1718, in his KALLIFATIDES is back with a detective story modern plant: a hybrid between hyper-aest- historical adventure novel Tio dagar i too, Ett enkelt brott (A Simple Crime), to hetic prose or poetry and cool scientific

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observation, such as it occurs in the works occurrences and situations – a job interview, of young Swedish prose writers like a banal conversation – as though they were Gabriella Håkansson, or German poets like extraordinary events. This is a device that Durs Grünbein. The male protagonist in forces readers to reflect on all that is most Fioretos’ novel is a scientific researcher of immediate and ordinary. The stories in the brain and a “soul biologist”. The fascina- JOHANNA EKSTRÖM’S Vad jag vet om hållfast- tion with science is also strong in KARL het (What I Know About Strength) also JOHAN NILSSON’S first novel Kvicksilver revolve around everyday life, but her style is (Mercury), published last spring. more restrained and psychologically control- The gradual loss of language and memo- led, even when it encompasses the vast issu- ry is hardly a new theme in literature, but in es of power and powerlessness, dream and ’S latest novel, Urminnes illusion. EVA MATTSSON’S stories in Hundarna tecken (Signs from Time Immemorial), i Ask (The Dogs in Ask) emerge from a language and memory are certainly the mature authorship that dares take risks in central “characters” in a story about some relation to the reader. These intricately com- Johanna Ekström creatures that are neither animals nor posed plots are about lives that have taken a humans, but something in between. new route, young and old people who are on ing a volume, Föreställningar (Performances) Urminnes tecken deals with the nature of sor- the run or have simply got lost and close that includes the script for the film Trolösa row and the sorrow of nature. It is an inter- themselves around their secrets. They are and two scripts that were never filmed. lude, an austerely beautiful story with a set in Sweden and in Europe, often in the Apart from these, there is very little drama happy ending, where the tone, if not the Belgium that was lamentable already in in this year’s book harvest. scope, is at times reminiscent of Ekman’s Baudelaire’s time, but which is now used to If Frostenson’s plays verge on poetry, somewhat neglected masterpiece Rövarna i represent an era when people trick and GUNNAR D HANSSON’S volume of poetry bor- Skuleskogen (The Robbers of Skuleskogen). betray each other, with money, feelings and ders on essays and science. In Förlusten av Consequently, this autumn’s title is not the vulnerable innocence. The characters are Norge (The Loss of Norway) he attempts to next instalment of her suite Vargskinnet wretched, usually from self-inflicted misery, salvage the remains of language, memories (The Wolfskin), of which the first part was and Mattsson treats them unsentimentally, and thoughts out of footnotes, older literatu- published last year. recreates their rough tone of conversation, PETER KIHLGÅRD surprised readers by sees their shabbiness and is never ingratia- »…but hardly a month producing a sequel to a novel published ting. passes without adding a few twelve years ago. Du har inte rätt att inte In poetry it has been possible to discern älska mig (You Have No Right Not to Love a couple of important tendencies over the centimetres to the pile of Me) is the title of this second volume of a past decade. Put very simply, there is the Strindberg literature. This narrative, realistic but nevertheless clearly modernist poetry with the ambition to talk autumn, we can read about straight and usually in a masculine voice his talent as a gardener (!).« about everyday life, reality and politics. GÖRAN GREIDER’S poetry belongs in this re and local history, in a poetic form that category. This year, he has published a volu- constitutes a category of contemporary me titled Världen efter kommunismen (The Swedish poetry all of its own. World After Communism). The title corre- Essays and biographies have represented sponds well with the content. Greider does a growing proportion of Swedish publishing not write naturalistic or lyrical poetry. He is over the past decade. This year’s crop, howe- a tribune in Sweden’s public life and his ver, is more meagre, but hardly a month poetry concerns major social changes and passes without adding a few centimetres to issues, occasionally reflected in the mudgu- the pile of Strindberg literature. This ard of a Volvo, or in the water under the autumn, we can read about his talent as a Charles Bridge in Prague. Then there is the gardener (!). The most debated Strindberg Aris Fioretos metaphor-shunning, strongly evocative and analysis this year ought, however, to have musical poetry that is above all associated been JAN MYRDAL’S monograph Johan planned quartet, of which the first part was with writers such as KATARINA FROSTENSON August Strindberg. Myrdal extracts the folksy, Fadder Teiresias vår (Godfather Teiresias’ and ANN JÄDERLUND. This year, Jäderlund “Swedish” side of Strindberg and places his Spring). In between these two novels, has produced her seventh volume of poems, anti-semitism in a national class perspecti- Kihlgård has written other material, inclu- Kalender röd (Calendar Red), while Frostenson ve, as if that would make it less objectionab- ding a great deal of musical and serious, has published two plays, possibly her best so le. The expected debate did not occur this playful short prose. far. Kristallvägen /Safirgränd (Crystal Road/ time however, possibly because the incendi- Short prose, or the short story, has become Sapphire Lane) is a double exposure of the ary material was not taken quite seriously. increasingly popular in recent years, especi- actions of language and body, and puts the The historian ANDERS ISAKSSON this year 7 ally among younger writers. One of the severed human on the stage. Language completed a four-volume work on another more acknowledged writers is TORBJÖRN always stands out like a foreign substance in national giant, the creator of the Swedish ELENSKY who, in his short story collection Frostenson’s poetry, and here it is given body welfare state, Per Albin Hansson. Per Albin, Myrstack (Ant Hill) relates commonplace and movement. is publish- Landsfadern (Per Albin, Father of the People)

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author today who is so fearful of the soul and yet so bravely probes its very depths. “All fiction is autobiographical, and only in that sense can it justifiably be claimed to be documentary,” writes in the epilogue to his new novel, I den röda damens slott (In the Red Lady’s Palace). He makes his way through the “documenta- rism” that the previous Swedish generation of authors – P O Enquist, P O Sundman and others – have availed themselves of with great success. However, Jakobson’s “docu- mentary” novels differ radically from those of his predecessors. Like them, he distrusts Per Wirtén Christine Falkenland the veracity of the document, but looks for the truth beyond the facts by mixing and dis- will be a standard work not only for those ked outside the institutional theatre, in the torting authentic and fictitious quotations, who want to read about a Swedish prime so-called fringe groups. It is these experien- and by relating actual events (his latest novel minister, but also for those who want to ces that he conveys, among others. Three incorporates the Iran-Contras affair and learn about a period when Sweden under- young critics, ANNE HEDÉN, MOA MATTHIS Oliver North) to events that could have taken went a revolution, albeit a gentle one. The and ULRIKA MILLES, also convey their own place, such as the colonisation of Mars. The role that early populism played in this revo- experiences in the collection of essays Över book begins with a motto from H G Wells, lution and in the Swedish popular move- alla hinder (Taking the Fences), a “history of who wrote about the invasion from Mars; ment is described by PER WIRTÉN in Populis- civilisation”, about girls and horses. Among Jakobson knows his science fiction, but in terna (The Populists), one of this year’s most the books published later this autumn, there his books the future is already past, Martian widely noticed and criticised fact books. is another collection of essays, Telefon- culture is extinct. In this year’s novel, an In an elegant collection of essays with katalogen (Telephone Directory) by LARS autobiographical narrator appears, a son the ambiguous title Prousts motor (Proust’s KLEBERG, that arouses curiosity. It deals who is clearing out a house after his dead Engine) modernity theoretician with the importance of the telephone in the father while intermittently attempting to argues that Marcel Proust was not only modernisation process, and not least in write an introduction to a book about Mars interested in things past, but also passiona- modern-day exercising of power as portray- and its extinct culture. He takes lorry-load te about future technology and potential. ed, for instance, in Russian drama and film This autumn, two poets have also each during the inter-War period. »Jakobson describes unreali- published a collection of literary essays: ULF Any critic who examines a year’s publi- ty with extreme stylistic ERIKSSON sketches an “aesthetic of time” in cations in search of themes and tendencies, his In i spegeln och bort (Into the Looking- good story-tellers and regenerating eccent- deftness and great detail. He Glass and Away); and walks rics, will sooner or later be forced to resign obviously does not believe in the footsteps of “poetic nihilism” from to the fact that it is impossible to generalise, Meister Eckhart and onwards in Läsningar av and that all the cards could be mixed and that Mars has been civilised intet (Readings of Nothing). , arranged according to another principle in a or that linguistic researchers who is reluctant to let a year go by without completely different order that would be just are trying to decipher the publishing something, this year produced a as valid. And yet, we go on generalising and slim volume of philosophical meditations, arranging. And always, something is left Martian written language, Meditationer (Meditations). In his characte- over, something that does not fit into the but he does believe the ristic style, he cogitates eloquently, inventi- order. This something is usually worth spe- people he visits, even in his vely and enthusiastically, albeit with the cial attention. CHRISTINE FALKENLAND’S occasional inexplicable little factual mistake, new novel, Själens begär (Desire of the Soul) imagination.« about time, sensuality or death. Thus, he is exactly the sort of book that does not fit devotes one and a half-melancholy pages to into any category. A man visits his female after lorry-load to the rubbish dump, as the lamenting that there is a grammatical term cousin at her country manor after many memories crowd up on him. Jakobson for past future, but no term for future past. years. Something unmentionable has sepa- describes unreality with extreme stylistic If he had devoted one second to checking rated them in the past, now they are irresis- deftness and great detail. He obviously does his facts, he would have found that futurum tibly drawn to one another, but hardly out of not believe that Mars has been civilised or exactum is the very term he wanted. love. Falkenland’s characters move in envi- that linguistic researchers are trying to deci- However, this sort of careless mistake is per- ronments seething with memories and fore- pher the Martian written language, but he haps part of Gustafsson’s charm. bodings. The cousin’s manor is a romanti- does believe the people he visits, even in his Charm and wisdom are both encompas- cally tinged pressure chamber reminiscent imagination. I den röda damens slott is not 8 sed by HENRIC HOLMBERG’S book about the of rooms in stories by Poe or Hoffmann. only one of this year’s most daringly plotted art of acting, Ett slags skådespelare (A Kind of There is a mystery that Falkenland is trying novels, it is also a very beautiful and captiva- Actor). The difference between Holmberg to reveal with her tight, pure, but still very ting characterisation of a loneliness that and a predecessor in the genre like Erland personal prose, and this is the secret of the most of us will recognise but few can break Josephson, is that he has almost always wor- soul. Rarely does one encounter a young out of. And, not least, it brilliantly confirms

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Children’s books as a mirror of society A selection of new Swedish books for children and young people

by Kajsa Lindsten Öberg

that artistic fiction can bring us N closer to the truth than facts alone.

The Engine Wolf written by Pernilla Stalfelt and her five-year-old nephew Calle Stalfelt.

o matter how imaginative a children’s book could look like this: is, it always contains an element of realism. The ’50s and ’60s: Books that combine A contemporary ethos, and an approach to fantasy with secure, familiar reality, that people and the world. speak to children in lively but correct langu- Today’s Swedish authors of children’s age and identify with their situation. books write their stories against a back- (Children are no longer brought up only to ground where television, video and compu- be well-behaved, but are also expected to be »Today’s Swedish authors of ter games play an important part in child- inventive and constructive, to fit in with the children’s books write their ren’s everyday life. Even the stories are influ- emerging optimistic post-War welfare socie- enced by current fashions and realities: ty. We need Swedish engineers. Class divi- stories against a background Anyone who writes stories today has to con- des are eroding and even working class where television, video and sciously or unconsciously relate to the genre children have access to higher education.) computer games play an called “fantasy”. The ’70s: A new political awareness, Another side of reality that cannot be dis- radicalism and critique against society (why important part in children’s regarded is that Sweden is now a multicul- isn’t everything as wonderful as it was sup- everyday life.« tural nation, where most children in their posed to be?). An interest in social issues everyday life encounter people from diffe- and the world around us. Super-realism for rent countries, who speak different langua- toddlers – books such as Emma hos tandlä- ges and have different religions, traditions karen (Emma at the Dentist’s). Not many and experiences. The refugees who came to fairytales. Sweden during the 1990s from countries The ’80s: Imagination, poetry and such as the former Yugoslavia have made nostalgia. Books about “the olden days”. war a reality that has crept closer also for Psychological problems of an existential Swedish children. kind – with beautiful, poetic solutions. Children are the victims of adult care, Death is a popular theme in children’s upbringing and control. They are shaped by books. Many fact books for children. their environment and exposed to it – this is The ’90s: Portrayals of society, with an a truth that is apparent already in early pic- emphasis on the psychology and problems ture books, where the child is taught grown- of the individual. Fewer political solutions, up names for the objects that the grown-ups more open endings. A distrust of dogmas have surrounded the child with and consi- and ready-made philosophies of life. der to be relevant to the child. Refugees and their experiences are a tangib- A short, summarised characterisation of le reality in Swedish society, as are ethnic 9 the focus and priorities of post-War child- conflicts and racism. A newly awakened ren’s literature, or the new possibilities and interest in the holocaust, refugees and themes that have emerged and been injec- racism in Sweden during the Second World ted in children’s literature over the decades, War. Playful fact books.

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ERIKSSON, is about a real dog – a bull terrier called Rosa. She has to go to a dog-minder, because, “Dogs shouldn’t sit at home grow- ling all day, that gets too boring.” We follow Rosa to the dog-minder and get to know a pack of dogs who each have their particular, strong personality. And the strongest and most particular personality belongs to Rosa. The illustrations of the dogs and their expressions as they regard each other are enough to put anyone in a good mood. Ever since the mid-60s, has written both realistic and more imagi- native books for children of all ages. She has often broken new ground and set new norms. She is probably the first to have writ- ten a picture book (for the very youngest children) about death, Titta, Max grav! (Look, Rosa in Kindergarten by Barbro Lindgren with illustrations by Eva Eriksson. Max’s Grave!, 1991). Barbro Lindgren has Naturally, children’s literature is pro- three ferociously funny fact books – Hår- written four previous books about Rosa – foundly influenced by earlier children’s lite- boken (The Hair Book, published in Swedish two for children and two for adults. rature – new books almost always incorpo- in 1996), Bajsboken (The Poo-Poo Book, 1997) TWO POETIC PICTURE BOOKS rate traces and references to previous books and Dödenboken (The Death Book, 1999) – ABOUT SORROW AND COMFORT – and the different genres interweave in the which have been widely acclaimed and suc- Gosetrasan Sven Flanell (Sven Flannel, the works. This has been my point of departure cessful. To talk about a thing like poo, and to Comfort Blanket) by EVA WIKANDER, is for this review of recent Swedish literature do so in a way that is both factual and jolly, illustrated by ANN FORSLIND, with sketchy for children and young people, and I have is an entirely new concept in children’s fact drawings against pastel backgrounds. The singled out some thirty books that I perceive books. The same applies to death: Döden- main character is a flannel blanket that jour- to be especially interesting, good and typical boken encompasses everything from dead neys out into the world to comfort everyone of the times. babies, happy skeletons and vampires, to who needs to be comforted – be they children children squabbling over the inheritance. or grown-ups, emperors or tramps. The text PICTURE BOOKS Vildvinter (Wild Winter) by ANNA-KARIN is in rhyme and sometimes highly poetic: Books about animals “All is in a haze / soon the / nightingale has – both fictitious and real »The main character is a its last days / where are all my years? / said A large number of books for small children flannel blanket that journeys the old woman, wiping her tears.” are about animals. We could speculate about Eva Wikander has been writing for child- why this is so. Animals are sweet. Children out into the world to com- ren and young people since the 1970s, like animals. Animals resemble toddlers in fort everyone who needs to including a few widely acclaimed books some ways: They can’t express their feelings be comforted – be they child- about bullying – where the first book was in words; therefore we can interpret their about the victim and the second about the behaviour to mean all sorts of things. ren or grown-ups, emperors bully. In a picture book, illustrations and text or tramps.« Ängeln Gunnar dimper ner (Gunnar the should be of equal weight. In Sweden it is it Angel Falls to Earth) by BARBRO LINDGREN, not uncommon that authors of picture PALM, with illustrations by ANNA BENGTSSON, with illustrations by CHARLOTTE RAMEL, is books are illustrators or artists who both is a beautiful, poetic story about fictitious about miracles: Gunnar the angel visits write and illustrate their books. animals – about the wild and “snow-soft” Earth one day and raises people and animals One important new writer on the snow leopards that crawl out of the trees in from the dead. Wherever he passes, tears of Swedish picture book Parnassus in the the parks and whirl around Stockholm in sorrow turn to tears of joy. The story is 1990s was PERNILLA STALFELT. She has also the winter, when dusk falls and the ground simple and concise, with not one superflu- created her own genre: the norm-breaking is covered with snow. Each spread is filled ous word. Miracles take place, and it is not a humorous fact book for children. with a large picture in mild twilight colours dream, it’s real. The pictures show animals Her most recent book, Lokvargen (The – the soft contours of the city in the winter and people rising from their graves and Engine Wolf) was written together with her evening and whirling snow leopards. The jumping out of the earth. “That’s my old five-year-old nephew, CALLE STALFELT. It is a text is billowingly expressive and magically Pussycat! I met an angel who could do fictive fact book about a remarkable, woolly, evokes an atmosphere: “Strange things hap- magic. He made Pussy alive again,” the litt- two-legged animal, the Engine Wolf, which pen in the city in winter...” le girl Elin tells her mother. And her mother 10 is “very strong”. Engine wolves like to swim This is Anna-Karin Palm’s first children’s is extremely surprised. with crocodiles, and to fight. And they poo book. She has previously written novels for too. It is a hilarious book, written and illust- adults. CONTEMPORARY REALISM rated in an imaginative, naïvist style. Rosa på dagis (Rosa in Kindergarten) by IN THREE PICTURE BOOKS Pernilla Stalfelt has previously written BARBRO LINDGREN with illustrations by EVA The first of these three picture books that

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enjoyable it can be to have homosexual ous. They are set alternately in Stockholm parents. (According to the fact box at the end and Greece, and give an optimistic, positive of the book, around 40,000 children in picture of what life can be like in a modern Sweden are estimated to have at least one family with divorced parents, a stepfather, a homosexual parent.) The illustrations (by real father who is far away, and half-siblings. MIMMI TOLLERUP-GRKOVIC) are friendly and Tsatsiki is sensitive and inquisitive and realistic. A funny little imagined pig is pre- benefits from his contact with two cultures sent in every picture and expresses the fee- (Sweden and Greece). Tsatsiki’s mother is lings Malin experiences in different situa- strong and independent and loving. In the tions (happy, excited, naughty, cross, sleepy, latest book, Tsatsiki experiences three major etc.). events: His grandfather dies, his sister is The third book is about Pyret, a girl who born and he dares touch an older girl’s goes with her parents to Vietnam to adopt a breasts. little brother. She herself is adopted from has written several India. The book is called Pyret får en lillebror books about the boy Metteborg. In Metteborg (Pyret gets a Little Brother), and was written och Little Ben (Metteborg and Little Ben), he by INGVOR GOYERYD. It is a friendly and has started fifth grade. The book has short, comforting book about sibling love and sib- intense, easily read chapters on friendship, Tsatsiki and Love by Nilsson-Brännström. love and mischief. And, of course, on feeling deal with current society in a pedagogical »They are set alternately in left out. And on longing so much for a dog way, while still being funny and enjoyable in that you eventually start believing you are Stockholm and Greece, and their realism, is Billy och mormor (Billy and one. The tone of the book is happy, humo- Grandmother) by , with give an optimistic, positive rous and full of life. In the periphery of the illustrations by MATI LEPP. This is novelist picture of what life can be idyll, however, there lurks a darker reality: Birgitta Stenberg’s eighth book about the Metteborg’s classmate, Little Ben, is rather boy Billy. His grandmother comes to visit, like in a modern family with tiresome and nasty, but that’s because his and she is a very contemporary grandmot- divorced parents,…« mother is dying. When she dies all he has is her, who does yoga, keeps a pet rat and does his alcoholic father, a sympathetic teacher not quite please her daughter. Billy, a quiet ling rivalry and about being adopted from and relatively kind friends. and thoughtful lad, manages to mediate another country. (At the back of the book it CECILIA MODIG wrote her first children’s between mummy and grandmother so eve- says that nearly 40,000 people in Sweden book in 1999, Mörka skogen – En sommar i ryone is happy in the end. Billy is an odd litt- have been adopted from another country.) Ademirs liv (Dark Forest – One Summer in le character with a round belly and skinny Two kinds of realism are discernible in legs and a surprised mien, who moves Swedish children’s and young people’s »Grown-up behaviour is through a specific and typically Swedish books: idyllic, calm and comforting everyday never explained. They seem contemporary environment – with punk- realism – often incorporating humour and to live in their own world, rockers in black with rings and metal studs minor complications that are easily sorted in every conceivable place, and plucky gran- out, at best written with psychological and the world of the book is dmothers in plaid trousers who dare talk to insights and good characterisations. that of the bewildered child, them. Secondly, problem-related, psychological Birgitta Stenberg has previously written realism, dealing with real problems and seri- who is still living in an age novels for adults, some of them dealing with ous crises of a psychological, existential or when the world is full of her wild youth among the bohemians of social nature – death, alcoholism, juvenile magical possibilities.« Europe’s capitals. delinquency, bullying, unreliable grown- ANETTE LUNDBORG’S Malins mamma gif- ups, etc. This realism sometimes also has a Ademir’s Life). Ademir and his mother are ter sig med Lisa (Malin’s Mum Marries Lisa) political or ethical message. refugees from Bosnia. They live in a suburb tells the story of how Malin’s mother Siv gets Both types can be freely mixed with sto- to Stockholm. All their relatives have died in married, or registers her partnership, with ries, fantasy and adventure, and are often the war. There is nothing to return to. her partner and lover Lisa. Then Lisa gets found in the same book, although one kind Mother has found a Swedish fiancé – Arne – pregnant, and Malin is told how she herself dominates. who is very kind but doesn’t want to unders- was made. “I got seeds from your daddy,” tand that life can have its darker sides. He is her mummy tells her – in a jar. Daddy’s BOOKS FOR YOUNG SCHOOL CHILDREN divorced and has three children who are boyfriend Niklas is the father of the new Easy readers with everyday realism spoilt, chirpy and happy. Ademir is a shy child, “Because he also wanted to be a fat- Tsatsiki och kärleken (Tsatsiki and Love) by boy, who is going to start his fourth year at her.” Malin is relieved, because she was fee- MONI NILSSON-BRÄNNSTRÖM is a new book school and doesn’t get on very well there. ling a bit jealous. She wants to have a sib- in the series about the boy Tsatsiki who lives The book is about one summer in the ling, but she also wants her daddy to herself. with his mother in a flat in central Swedish countryside and about Ademir’s 11 This is a simple and idyllic book on an unu- Stockholm. His father lives in Greece. The lonely walks in the woods, where he meets a sual theme. Anette Lundborg wrote the books about Tsatsiki have been a success stray dog. He wants to help the dog find its book because no one had written a book for and have also been made into a film. They home. What happens is a testimony to the children before about how normal and are easy to read, action-packed and hilari- fact that emotional wounds can heal, and

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cultural divides be bridged, with care and world start to arrive, in search of a more pea- good will. ceful life closer to nature. A boy named A book that mixes idyllic everyday rea- Oliver is on his way there. He is accompani- lism with fantasy is SANNA TÖRINGE’S first ed by Fanny, who is going in search of her book, Gula häxboken (The Yellow Witch big sister. On their arrival they find themsel- Book). It is about the girl Eline’s last sum- ves in the midst of a political coup. An evil mer before starting school. She finds a self- sect leader has gained command over a reading yellow witchcraft book on the bus large group of youths whom he takes with (she can’t read herself yet). Thanks to the him and brainwashes into compliant hel- magic recipes in the book she manages to pers. The fairytale characters are interesting get her wishes fulfilled and help others personalities, just as multifaceted as during the summer. However, some spells humans, and rarely one-dimensionally evil are too difficult: “If you want to win fights, or good. This makes the book a cut above place a tooth from a dead person and a cock- the ordinary. The trolls especially are an erel’s egg in one of your boots, then no one enjoyable acquaintance. (“If you make fri- can hit you.” It is a cheerful, warm-hearted ends with a troll, you have a friend for life,” book that also has its own gentle sense of says the author in an interview.) How the mystery. Grown-up behaviour is never humans, gnomes and trolls together con- explained. They seem to live in their own quer evil is the theme of the book. It ends The Boy and the Robbers by Bo R Holmberg. world, and the world of the book is that of with Oliver and his family planning their the bewildered child, who is still living in an to influence her brother’s love affairs. The move to the Land Inside. Because it is pos- age when the world is full of magical possi- grown-ups around Agnes are both ordinary sible to live there and still have contact with bilities. When summer is over, she has to and very unusual: Her dad, a floor-layer, who our world, via e-mail and cell-phones. return the witch book to the witch, and then takes good care of his children and the hous- Maud Mangold’s books could very well she becomes a schoolgirl. Sanna Töringe ehold, the chirpy old man and his girlfriend, become classics, in the same way as Tove has previously written cookery books. grandmother who rides a motorbike instead Jansson’s Moomin books or Lewis’s stories A book that instead mixes problem-related of baking cakes, and her other grandmother about Narnia. She has the ability of a great realism with fantasy is HÅKAN JAENSSON’S who is respectable and cooks dinners. raconteur to create a wide and plausible ficti- Bullers Bluff (The Bluff of Hullabaloo). When the book ends, Agnes is begin- ve world that is a pleasure to wander into and Hullabaloo’s parents move from the ning to accept dad’s need for a woman. She where we can dwell for hours – without think- countryside to Stockholm. His mother pur- has simply matured slightly and grown ing about references or narrative techniques. sues a career as a consultant, while father more secure – before the terrible puberty Brunos cirkus (Bruno’s Circus) by MONIKA mainly sits pondering, tugging at his beard, sets in. ZAK is perhaps this year’s most optimistic drinking beer and being a failure. No one book. It is about the world’s loneliest lady, has time for Hullabaloo (he’s called that STORIES AND ADVENTURES Berta Viderstrand, 79 years old, whose every because he’s so quiet). When Hullabaloo BO R HOLMBERG’S Pojken och rövarna (The dream comes true at last. She gets a char- starts rescheduling things in his mother’s Boy and the Robbers) is a story set in the ming little dog, she goes to the South Sea to diary, she does not notice. She arrives at the past, and is based on an old legend from perform in a circus dressed in a tutu with wrong place at the wrong time. Eventually northern Sweden. When Per’s sister returns roses. And she encounters love. This is an she loses her job – and she can’t understand home after having been held captive by the absolutely wonderful book, full of travel and how it happened. With a final bluff, robbers on the high mountain, Per decides Hullabaloo manages to get his parents tal- to take revenge. He does so, not only for his king to one another again. This happens at sister’s sake but more perhaps to restore the the local pizza parlour in the new estate, one reputation of his family, which has been snowy Christmas Eve in Stockholm, where ostracised by the villagers. two policemen sit snogging in a corner. This is a terse, exciting and bloody tale Two books that fit into the idyllic realism about courage, betrayal and exclusion. It slot are Fredda tio år (Fredda, Ten Years Old), ends happily, but not as happily as Per had by HELENA DAHLBÄCK and Agnes och kärle- hoped. Are the robbers a special tribe, diffe- ken (Agnes and Love) by BO R HOLMBERG. rent from other humans? Or are they simply Fredda tio år is the fourth book about Fredda, outcasts – like the gypsies among whom Per who is now in her third school year. It is and his family are counted? about school, putting oneself forward, and Maghognyögat (The Mahogany Eye) by classroom relations. It is also about Fredda’s MAUD MANGOLD is the second part of an ori- two cats and the neighbour’s dog, and about ginal Fantasy series in which the supernatu- how awful it feels to move. ral characters are taken from Nordic mytho- 12 Agnes och kärleken is about twelve-year- logy. The books are set in our time, in our old Agnes, who is deeply preoccupied with world, and in the Land Inside, which is a the mystery of love. Her mother is dead. She parallel world where the trolls, witches, gno- is possessive of her dad and reacts violently mes and elves of the old fairytales have when he meets a new woman. She also tries found a sanctuary. But people from our Bruno’s Circus by Monika Zak.

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animals and possibilities. Moreover, it is unusual in that the heroine is a retired lady. Monika Zak has previously travelled around the world, worked for global justice and environmental issues, and written fact- based children’s books. Ivos resa (Ivo’s Journey) by new writer KERSTIN G LARSSON is a classical adventure story set in an unspecified past, in an unspe- cified country. The intelligent little boy Ivo leaves the farm where he has been the bulli- ed youngest farmhand as long as he can recall, and goes off into the world in search of his parents. For the first time on his jour- ney, he meets people who do not till the earth: circus artists, robbers and tradesmen. He travels through vast forests and to villa- ges and cities that are governed by landed gentry and the clergy. He encounters evil and good. Eventually, he finds his home – the place in society that was intended for him. There he finds out who he is. It is a well-written book in a traditional style. So Many Tears, interviews Open Sea by is the author’s Gudarnas son (Son of the Gods) by the refugee girl Rukije from Kosovo. fourth book about two Jewish sisters. NIKLAS KROG is an adventure set in an exact both happy and sad. About kind and unkind about the holocaust that was distributed to epoch and in an actual historical situation: Swedes, about the joy of finally being allo- all Swedish school children), a public debate Alexander the Great’s campaign in 333-331 wed into Swedish society, and also the hap- arose concerning Sweden’s role during and B.C. The Macedonian teenage boys Janus, piness of being with those of one’s own after the war: To what extent were we aware Troy and Kaleb beg to be allowed to join the group and maintaining one’s own culture in of the holocaust? Were there perpetrators campaign. They have different reasons for a foreign country. A deeply sympathetic and and victims among us? What did we actually wanting to go: a longing for adventure, to interesting book. do during the war? And what happened to get away from mum’s nagging, glory. But Siv Widerberg started writing socially those who were never allowed in? Where did Janus, who is the main character, also has involved books for children and teenagers the Swedish Nazis disappear? the secret reason of looking for his father, already in the 1960s. Vända livet (Turn Life This debate was also reflected in who has already gone to war, and winning Around) is her next book. It is based on Swedish books for young people in the latter his respect – simply to be seen by him. The interviews with young Swedes – a former half of the ’90s. book is full of bloody battles, strategy, hero- racist and an ex-drug addict. Öppet hav (Open Sea) BY ANNIKA THOR IS ism, death and hardships. THE AUTHOR’S FOURTH BOOK ABOUT TWO How the boys are hardened into men in IN THE WAKE OF THE HOLOCAUST JEWISH SISTERS who arrive as refugees in the toughest manner and forced to accept Fifty years after the war ended, Swedes star- Sweden during the war and end up as foster the endless cruelties of the war and their children in two Christian families on an general towards the civilian population is »Judith tells her about island in the Gothenburg archipelago. In one of the main themes. Another is the this book the war comes to an end. Sweden during the war – about bewildering power of love and the wild, mad Although the girls have now acclimatised to craving to be seen – almost at any cost. This decent Swedish families with Swedish society, they still feel unsure about is a war story with psychological elements, aggressively nazi members where they belong. Steffi, the oldest, who and no sentimentality. Niklas Krog has dreams of studying to become a doctor, is previously written fantasy books. who were hostile to foreig- shocked by the encounter with the sick and ners. About what it was like dying who arrive in Sweden from the con- BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE being a refugee dependent centration camps. At the end of the book, Refugees in Sweden the sisters leave Sweden to be reunited with Så många tårar (So Many Tears) is a book in on the goodwill of others.« their surviving relatives in America. which SIV WIDERBERG interviews the refu- In CANNIE MÖLLER’S book Balladen om gee girl RUKIJE from Kosovo (who is also co- ted taking an interest in the holocaust. This Sandra Ess (The Ballad of Sandra Ess) tough author of the book). It tells of the refugee may in part be associated with the war in the and sensitive nineteen-year-old Sandra family’s wait for a residence permit, about former Yugoslavia and all the refugees from meets eighty-year-old Judith Klein, a Jewish the time spent in hiding from the Swedish that area who arrived in Sweden in the ’90s. woman who fled to Sweden during the occu- 13 authorities when they are threatened with In connection with the educational pro- pation of Norway. Sandra has her first job in deportation. The twenty-year-old Rukije is ject initiated by Swedish prime minister the old people’s home where Judith spends allowed to give a subjective picture of the Göran Persson, and the book Om detta må her final years. family’s fate – she writes about her feelings, ni berätta (Tell Ye Your Children…, a book Sandra gets increasingly drawn into a

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reluctant friendship with Judith, who is as and enormous enjoyment. These books deal capricious and impulsive as Sandra herself. with young girls’ thoughts on relationships, Judith tells her about Sweden during the maturity, sex and the striving to find oneself war – about decent Swedish families with and one’s road in life. The men in these aggressively nazi members who were hosti- books are rather nebulous and serve merely le to foreigners. About what it was like being as background characters. They are simply a refugee dependent on the goodwill of uninteresting. And the dramatic content of others. About the survivor’s sense of guilt. the books revolves mainly round the female When Judith dies at the end of the book, central characters, their thoughts and fee- both she and Sandra have somehow recon- lings, and their insights and road to maturity. ciled themselves to life. In Som om ingenting (As If Nothing) This is a powerful book about the loneli- KATARINA VON BREDOW writes about norm- ness of young and old people, and about breaking love and eroticism. Elin, who has how love can conquer bitterness. The story just left school, enters into a love affair with abut the Second World War refugees is set the father of her best friend. Love turns to against the story of the illegal Polish immi- disappointment as she realises that the grants who are renovating the house Sandra older man, despite their spiritual communi- lives in. on and her enthusiasm, is totally unprepa- Elden (The Fire) by INGER FRIMANSSON is red to put his security on the line for her about teenage loneliness, about feelings of sake. But the book is also about being seized guilt and insecurity, and about trying to for the first time by a real and adult erotic John-John is written by Mats Wahl. become an adult. Josefina is fourteen. She passion, or erotic madness and violent believes that a fire in which one of her class- longing beyond all reason. mother turns up, the woman who abando- mates was seriously injured is her fault. Her The author has previously written a book ned her at birth. Yet, the most important anxiety makes her ill, and she is sent to her about sibling incest (Syskonkärlek 1991) and event in the book is Julia’s sudden feeling of aunt and uncle to recuperate. On their a book (Knappt lovlig, 1996) about a fifteen- independence and her decision to leave island she lives in touch with the sea, natu- year-old girl who falls in love and has a rela- home to start studying. re and animals and grown-ups who are calm tionship with a man twice her age. TWO PSYCHOLOGICAL BOOKS FOR BOYS »In Som om ingenting (As »Angel is an exemplary son Let us modernise the concept of the “boys’ book” – traditionally, this would represent a If Nothing) Katarina von and a loving big brother, but book about masculine interests such as cars, Bredow writes about norm- he is also a real Don Juan. war and football – and instead use it to deno- breaking love and eroticism. He is chronically frightened te a book where the focus is on boys’ pro- blems and development, sexuality and fee- Elin, who has just left of staying with anyone and lings, maturity and insights, and where this school, enters into a love getting too involved, until he is more important than the actual plot: Smitvarning (Escape Alert) by HANS affair with the father of her happens to fall in love and is OLSSON is about the teenage boy Angel who best friend.« rejected himself.« lives with his Chilean mother and little sis- ter in a Stockholm suburb. His father has and have time for her. Eventually, she is Ballongfararens morgon (The Balloonist’s left them years ago to return to Chile. Angel strong enough to find out for herself what Morning) is written by ANITA EKLUND is an exemplary son and a loving big brother, really happened, and she returns to her LYKULL, perhaps Sweden’s most established but he is also a real Don Juan. He is chroni- school and her age peers. The holocaust is writer of contemporary girls’ books. She is a cally frightened of staying with anyone and present as a parallel. It is about guilt: One deft reporter on Swedish real life, especially getting too involved, until he happens to fall boy in her class is from a Jewish family that when it comes to family life and girls on the in love and is rejected himself. was afflicted by the holocaust. The boy is verge of adulthood. Her language is vibrant The book deals with multicultural life in very keen on Josefina, and treats her with and expressive, youthful without being the suburbs, gangs, and dancing – Angel’s anxious, intrusive care. He is burdened by mannered. Ballongfararens morgon is about hobby and perhaps even his future. But it is his family history, and Josefina has a bad Julia who has just left school and does not also about Angel’s search to find himself conscience for wanting to reject him. This is quite know what she wants to do in life. The and the childhood his neurotic mother an interesting and poetic novel, and sympat- book is so packed with contemporary dra- hetic in that it does not supply answers to all matic detail that it sets the reader’s head »When he violently attacks an the questions. spinning: her parents get divorced, daddy is immigrant boy and later brags an alcoholic, her brother is gay, her sister 14 MODERN BOOKS FOR GIRLS bullied, her younger brother adopted and about his deed, she reports There are certain books I would classify as dark-skinned, and she herself adopted. Her him to the police. The ensu- girls’ books. However, that does not mean mother’s liberation after the divorce, a close only girls can read them. On the contrary – friend’s death, sex with the wrong man, ing events are nightmarish I believe boys read them with great curiosity abortion... and suddenly, Julia’s unknown and realistic.«

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deprived him of. The case is “forgotten”. The racist Johan John-John is written by MATS WAHL. The ends up in a reformatory but is soon out on hero of the book, a sensitive and talented parole. His friends treat him like a hero. The boy who grew up with a criminal stepfather girl, Sara, returns to her school. The and became a juvenile delinquent himself, teachers are totally uninterested in what has is now twenty years old and has left home. happened, and her friends remain silent. While waiting for his trial, he joins a theatre Mats Berggren made his debut in 1987 group that is rehearsing Chekhov’s The with a book about working in a car factory. Seagull. John-John reflects a great deal on He has been hailed as a renewer of the poli- the characters of The Seagull – a play about tical novel. degradation and humiliation. To support EMMA VALL’S Egna spår (Own Tracks) himself, he takes on a job as a baby-sitter, or tells the story of a sister and brother whose “bodyguard”, for an upper-class boy in parents have gone off in separate directions Stockholm. He discerns the boy’s problems to find themselves. The kids live on their but cannot do anything about them. Nor can own in a Stockholm apartment – a rather he defend himself against his criminal step- aimless teenage existence with pop music, Vendela in Venice by Christina Björk with father, who one day bursts into his life love, school, bike messenger jobs and cafes. illustrations by Inga-Karin Eriksson. again. He just flees. However, this time he is The girl, Svala, takes up with vegans. By involved in a group that wants to rouse pub- lucky. He ends up with his old classmate coincidence she gets involved in a scary lic opinion against female circumcision, Elisabeth, and with her he experiences love. business – a few dangerous and violent vil- which is practised in that country. She It is a human and reasonable love, a realistic lains accuse the vegans of having liberated meets Sheriffoba, a local boy of her own age, love where he alternately gives and receives minks from a mink farm. Svala discovers that who supports his family by guiding and consideration, intimacy and eroticism. At the vegan movement also incorporates indi- assisting tourists. Perhaps Sheriffoba is the the end of the book we understand that viduals who are prepared to resort to point- most open of the two, the one most prepa- John-John will probably survive, and that he less violence. At the same time, she cannot red to revise his opinions of wrong and is already less vulnerable. This is a very poig- help admiring the vegans for their uncom- right. The first-person narrator of the book nant contemporary portrait, a Stockholm promising stand that frightens the adults. is alternately Inga-Lill, Sheriffoba, and two story and a psychological novel. Emma Vall is a pseudonym. The author of his friends, who are members of the resi- has previously written thrillers for adults. stance and are planning the coup. When the »Henry’s survival instinct ’S Dubbelspel (Double- Dealing) is also about children who have forces him to put on a tough been abandoned by their parents. Henry, act in order to be accepted who is in his eighth school year, is trying to as Samir’s right hand, while cope with his younger siblings. His mother has died and his father has gone off some- secretly plotting to stop his where. Eventually, Henry cannot manage, rampage. The book ends on and the children move in with their aunt and uncle. Their new school is in a disrepu- a cautiously optimistic table area with a mainly immigrant popula- note.« tion. In Henry’s class, the immigrant boy Samir is the tyrannical class leader, who Two previous novels – Vinterviken (1993) beats up anyone when he feels like it, and and De övergivna (The Abandoned, 1997) are has decided to make the teacher break down about John-John’s childhood. – the idealistic Anders. Henry’s survival instinct forces him to put on a tough act in PROBLEM-ORIENTED order to be accepted as Samir’s right hand, CONTEMPORARY REALISM while secretly plotting to stop his rampage. Four exciting books The book ends on a cautiously optimistic for young people on urgent topics note. Blåögd (Blue-eyed) by MATS BERGGREN is Max Lundgren has written socially enga- about a girl who falls in love with a handso- ged books for young people since the ’60s. me racist with violent tendencies. When he He is probably best known for his books violently attacks an immigrant boy and later about the members of Åshöjden football Vendela i Venedig is rich in detail and brags about his deed, she reports him to the club and about Benny, the boxer. graphic beauty. police. The ensuing events are nightmarish The fourth book is Svart Gryning (Black coup takes place, the foreign tourists are and realistic. The racist gang maliciously Dawn) by HANS ERIK ENGQVIST. It is set in a taken hostage by the coup perpetrators. In guards every step she takes, and the family country on the African west coast racked by the ensuing fight for political power the hos- 15 is harassed by nightly anonymous phone poverty and injustice, on the verge of a poli- tages are close to being killed. Throughout calls. Someone poisons her dog. Neither her tical coup. A Swedish girl, Inga-Lill, and her this, Sheriffoba remains by Inga-Lill’s side. I kind parents nor the police can protect her. parents arrive there on holiday. Her parents won’t disclose how the book ends, but will In the end, everything goes back to normal. are ingenuously jolly, but Inga-Lill gets add that Inga-Lill proves to be very brave,

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resourceful and determined. Hans Erik Engqvist has written socially and politically engaged books for young peo- ple since the late 1970s.

FACT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN Finally, two highly serious fact books for children, both of which have been commen- ded and widely acclaimed: Vendela i Venedig (Vendela in Venice) by CHRISTINA BJÖRK, with illustrations by INGA-KARIN ERIKSSON, is a beautiful and informative travel guide and description of Venice for children and adults. The frame story, about a father and his daughter who make the journey, is low-pitched and plau- sible, and the excitement derives from the facts that are related about the city of Venice, its history and the intriguing things you can see and do there. Vendela i Venedig is as rich in detail and graphic beauty as Christina Björk’s previous success, Linnea i målarens trädgård (Linnea in Monet’s Garden) – about a little girl who visits Paris and Monet’s home outside the city. Se huset (See the House) is a book on architecture. It does not have a frame story. Instead, the author conveys her own fasci- nation with looking at houses by her direct address to the reader. Her book starts in Höganäs, the little town in southern Sweden where she comes from, which is famous for its pottery and bricks. Then she goes out into the world, to different conti- nents, and shows us everything, from huts to museums and palaces. Se huset is not a systematic history of architecture, but rat- her, a collection of examples of interesting buildings of various kinds, and questions KERSTIN NILSSON and thoughts around architecture.

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