2022:2
Featuring works by Olivia Bergdahl, Jonas Brun, Karolina Ramqvist, Margit Silberstein, Jila Mossaed and more.
Editor: Alex Fleming
Reviews Editor: Darcy Hurford
Advisory Editors: Deborah Bragan-Turner, Sarah Death, Fiona Graham, Paul Norlen and Linda Schenck
Social Media: Sophie Ruthven
New Books: Alice E Olsson
Photo by Gustav Nilsson on Unsplash.
This autumn issue of Swedish Book Review comes just one week after the Swedish Academy announced its decision to award Nobel Prize in Literature 2022 to Annie Ernaux, ‘for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory’.
Fittingly, personal memory is at the heart of the translations presented in this issue, as we delve into some recent outstanding works of memoir and essay. Interweaving the deeply personal with the universal, and through a broad spectrum of approaches and styles, the writers excerpted shine an honest and uncompromising gaze on themselves and the world around them.
In the luminous Bread and Milk, Karolina Ramqvist depicts the ways in which we are shaped by what we cook, share and consume, and how food is linked to how we love, while in Children of the Holocaust, Margit Silberstein poignantly recounts her upbringing as part of two worlds, as a child of refugees in post-war Sweden.
Jonas Brun’s searching memoir She Doesn’t Remember inverts the chronology of his mother’s experience with dementia to create a vibrant account of a life well-lived, while Olivia Bergdahl’s Health & Care traces a mother’s pregnancy – and subsequent cancer diagnosis – through a dialogue with her unborn child. We are also delighted to present a translation of Bergdahl’s spoken-word poem Europe, a searing interrogation of the concept and legacy of 'Europeanness'.
In Features, Bradley Harmon reflects upon Jila Mossaed’s Swedish poetry – an insightful and wide-ranging essay exploring freedom, survival and the breath of poetry, and the possibilities and limitations of writing in a new language – and Sara Stridsberg shares her correspondence with her Ukrainian publisher, discussing the place of literature in the ongoing war.
Our reviews section features an array of new Swedish-language books, including unforgettable works of fiction, visually arresting graphic novels, topical non-fiction and urban fantasy for young readers.
For readers who enjoy this theme, our archives offer a wealth of writing on similar themes, including autobiographical works by Mats Strandberg, Anna-Karin Palm and Jenny Wrangborg, or our hand-picked selection of narrative non-fiction reviews from our recent Reviews Highlights Series.
We would like to extend our thanks to Swedish Literature Exchange for their support in producing this issue. We hope that you enjoy reading it.
Translations
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Health & Care by Olivia Bergdahl
In her latest book, spoken-word poet Olivia Bergdahl explores what it means to be cast into the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis while pregnant, and to survive.
Translated by Linda Schenck.
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from She Doesn't Remember by Jonas Brun
Jonas Brun's honest and searching account of his mother’s final years with dementia transports the reader beyond a lyrical encapsulation of a mother loved, mourned and lost, conveying the vibrancy and achievements of a life well lived.
Translated by Andy Turner.
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Bread and Milk by Karolina Ramqvist
In her essayistic memoir Bread and Milk, Swedish writer Karolina Ramqvist traces a girlhood through food, exploring how what we eat is inexorably intertwined with how we love.
Translated by Saskia Vogel.
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Children of the Holocaust by Margit Silberstein
Swedish journalist and writer Margit Silberstein tells the story of her parents’ escape from the Holocaust, interwoven with her own experience of navigating her Jewish heritage while growing up in postwar Sweden.
Translated by Karin Filipsson.
TRANSLATED POETRY
Europe by Olivia Bergdahl
Olivia Bergdahl's spoken-word poem Europa is a searing interrogation of the concept and legacy of 'Europeanness'.
Translated by Linda Schenck.
Features
FEATURE
Lend Me Your Language: Inspired Reflections on Jila Mossaed’s Swedish Poetry
Bradley Harmon reflects upon Jila Mossaed’s Swedish poetry, exploring freedom, survival and the breath of poetry, and the possibilities and limitations of writing in a new language.
By Bradley Harmon.
FEATURE
‘My Ukrainian publisher’s son said he wasn’t frightened – but the war changed him’
Before the war the Swedish writer Sara Stridsberg had never had any contact with her Ukrainian publisher. When Russia invaded Ukraine she sent an email. Here she writes about the exchange that followed, the family that was forced to flee, and the place of literature in the ongoing war.
Translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner.
Reviews
curated and edited by Darcy Hurford
Literary fiction
REVIEW
Samlade verk
The most brilliant and beautiful woman you never saw in the best debut you’ve ever read? Collected Works braids three characters into an unforgettable story.
REVIEW
Handbok i klardrömmar
Lucid Dreams: A User’s Manual is a collection of stories spanning suburbia, science fiction, loneliness, violence and sheer horror from Johanna Holmström, a past master of uncomfortable writing.
REVIEW
Jag faller som en sten genom tiden genom livet
Åke Smedberg, one of Sweden’s best-loved contemporary writers, presents a very Swedish genre: nature lyricism running like a red thread through a narrative, illuminated by bittersweet reminiscence.
REVIEW
Antiken
Saturated with the sights, sounds and tastes of Ermoupoli and loaded with simmering tensions, Hanna Johansson’s Antiquity is a suggestive exploration of desire, power, and the endless shifts of memory.
REVIEW
Tvillingsystrarna
The Twin Sisters is a captivating story about closeness, distance and exclusion, following the life of two young girls adopted from a Thai orphanage by a Swedish couple.
REVIEW
Babetta
Set in the South of France and inspired by cinema, Nina Wähä’s novel Babetta is a mysterious story of friendship in which nothing is as it seems.
Thrillers
REVIEW
Herrens år 1400
A heinous criminal - or criminals - stalk the alleys, passages, churches and walls of medieval Visby. No one is safe until Thierry of Liège doggedly gets to the truth in Dick Harrison’s latest crime fiction.
Graphic Novels/Comics
REVIEW
På glid
A loosely autobiographical tale of touring musicians, anxiety, suicide and drug use, narrated in nail polish colours, Moa Romanova’s Off the Rails is an image-driven, witty and moving account of friendship.
REVIEW
Den uppgrävda jorden
Graphic novelist Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom’s first work, Palimpsest, was an exploration of her own adoption from Korea to Sweden. In Excavated Earth, a moving, painful work, she continues her artistry and advocacy by analysing adoptions – or, more accurately, baby thefts – from Chile to Sweden.
Fiction for children and teenagers
REVIEW
Bortbytingar 1 – De överblivnas armé
Monsters from Nordic mythology and changelings disguised as human teenagers are loose on the streets of modern-day Stockholm in Changelings 1 – The Army of Orphans.
REVIEW
Kitoko
Kayo Mpoyi's Kitoko (meaning ‘beautiful’) is the touching story of how a little girl helps her father find hope again.
REVIEW
Vi ska ju bara cykla förbi
Manda and her best friend Malin are inseparable. In We'll just ride past, it's them against their small-town world... or not so much ‘against’ but outside it, cycling round the periphery of anything thrilling, as the end of the school year looms and with it the end of their compulsory education.
REVIEW
Vänta på vind
Have you ever dreamt of spending your summers on a remote Swedish island? Well, that’s exactly what the main character in Oskar Kroon’s children’s novel Waiting for the Wind gets to do in this heart-warming tale about freedom, sadness, loneliness, love, death, friendship and the sea.
Non-fiction
REVIEW
Strejk. Frän satans svarta kvarnar till gigekonomin.
A closer look at the development of strikes that homes in on different aspects of industrial conflict, Jesper Hamark’s Strike. From Dark Satanic Mills to the Gig Economy offers some interesting ideas on the trade unionism and capitalism of today.
REVIEW
Brev till mannen
In Letters to Men, comedian, actress, and author Bianca Kronlöf addresses the men in her own peer group to ask for their loyalty, help and commitment to the feminist struggle for gender equality.