Reviews
REVIEW
Geniet från Breslau
Boy meets girl at a dance school. Boy becomes a prominent scientist, girl becomes one of the first women to gain a doctorate in chemistry. Who is the genius from Breslau in Lena Einhorn's latest novel?
REVIEW
Historiegeneratorn
A collection of six interconnected short stories by Danny Wattin. Sharp and entertaining.
REVIEW
Mamma
Adrian Perera's first novel is a claustrophobic story in four languages and plays with the reader’s assumptions from the word go.
REVIEW
Andrum. Om stölden av en flyktingkris och om de bestulna
Although the refugee crisis was depicted by press and politicians as a crisis in Sweden, Banke’s book is a timely reminder that the asylum seekers are in fact the ones facing a crisis.
REVIEW
Djävulen är en lögnare
In a novel that alternates between Finland and Cameroon, Sara Razai explores race, class, religion and belonging.
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Sagan om Turid. Kungadottern
Not only is the main character a girl, but the novel looks at other aspects of Viking life, particularly religion, literacy and social distinctions.
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Sovjets barnbarn. Ryssarna i Baltikum. Reportage
In Latvia, however, many people are constantly told they are Russians – however long they’ve lived there.
REVIEW
Jag är en tjuv
At a staff meeting, discussing ways to tackle the persistent issue of shoplifting, a security guard suggests the store deal with the problem by making culprits wear a sign saying ‘I am a thief’.
LATEST REVIEW
Nattexpressen
Nattexpressen is an exciting story for children that opens up opportunities for conversations on a hard topic: how to talk about people who have changed or who are no longer themselves.
REVIEW
Låt mig ta din hand
Alsterdal has been carving out a niche as a writer of page-turners with a political, international flavour.
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Kättarnas tempel
The historical novel – often long, usually impressively researched – is very much alive.
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Doktor Nasser har ingen bil: Kairo i omvälvningens tid
Thunander lets the people she meets speak for themselves – much of the text is directly quoted dialogue.
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Frihetens pris är okänt. Om demokratiska revolutioner i Georgien, Ukraina och Kirgizistan
‘The problem is the same everywhere: introducing democracy hurts.’
REVIEW
Kaos: Ett grekiskt krislexikon
Greek has given us many words: democracy, philosophy, logic and poetry. Since the collapse of the country’s economy however, a newer, unhappier vocabulary has sprung up associated with Greece: words like troika, corruption, austerity.
REVIEW
Fallvatten
The idea of a Swedish disaster story is interesting in itself. The Hollywood output of scare stories is mind-numbing, but something about setting this story in rural Sweden makes it more unsettling than the most imaginative zombie invasion; we expect the Swedish countryside to be safe and uneventful.
Translations
LATEST TRANSLATION
The Sauna Throne by Axel Åhman
At a public swimming pool somewhere in Finland, a young man decides to take a sauna. The ensuing sweaty power struggle is a hilarious, finely tuned exploration of masculinity, linguistic identity and the corrupting nature of power
Translated by D.E. Hurford