2010:2
Fiction by Håkan Nesser and Agneta Pleijel, and tributes to the poet Ragnar Thoursie and scholar-poet Göran Printz-Påhlson
Editor: Sarah Death / Deputy Editor: Neil Smith
(Image: The midnight sun in northern Sweden. © Thomas Utsi/imagebank.sweden.se)
Translations
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from The Worms on Carmine Street by Håkan Nesser
The Worms on Carmine Street is about the search for a child who has disappeared. But it is also about other things: guilt, loss and existential loneliness – and about being taken in by circumstances over which a person has no control.
Translated by James Walker
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from The Queen's Surgeon by Agneta Pleijel
The Queen's Surgeon is the first part of a family history that draws on aspects of Agneta Pleijel's own history, discussing power, gender and insatiable ambition.
Translated by Silvester Mazzarella
Articles
FEATURE
Care - a Nobler Form of Love
A tribute to Ragnar Thoursie (1919-2010) – poet and civil servant – who died aged 90 on 12 July 2010.
By Brita Green. Translations by Brita Green and John Charlesworth.
FEATURE
The Göran Printz-Påhlson Memorial Seminar and Poetry Reading, June 2010
Sarah Death reports on a memorial day for Göran Printz-Påhlson, a Swedish poet, essayist, translator and literary critic, in Cambridge.
IN MEMORIAM
Even a Sort of Lone Ranger
Extract from a personal memoir of Göran Printz-Påhlson (3 March 1931 - 27 July 2006). Written in August 2006 and presented at the memorial event at Clare Hall, 2 June 2010.
Reviews
Edited and compiled by Anna Paterson
Reissued works
REVIEW
Tysk höst
Stig Dagerman's novel provides a brilliant depiction of the suffering, devastation and moral vacuum in war-ravaged Germany.
Novels
REVIEW
Drömfabriken
The tradition of Swedish worker literature is currently in revival; Maria Hamberg's novel continues that revival.
REVIEW
Till sista andetaget
Anne Swärd’s novel is beautifully written, in controlled, evocative, at times aphoristic language; there is writing to savour on every page.
REVIEW
Diplomaten
The second instalment in Alexander Ahndoril’s planned trilogy of novels based loosely on the lives of three living Swedes.
REVIEW
Eldar och is
Birgitta Stenberg has written an inventive autobiographical hybrid which subverts the genre.
REVIEW
Mäktig Tussilago
It is difficult to read Maja Lundgren’s new novel without being strongly aroused by it.
REVIEW
Vännerna
True to his trademark style, Lars Jakobson’s novel is large and intricately constructed – a literary hybrid, alive with a pulse that oscillates between fiction and documentary.
Crime fiction
REVIEW
Lilla stjärna
For all the gore, John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel transcends the formulaic boundaries of horror fiction to probe at the interaction of exclusion, powerlessness and violence.
REVIEW
Hypnotisören
When it became obvious that this first novel in the series was going straight to the top of the leader board, the media started to chase the elusive Lars Kepler.
REVIEW
Paganinikontraktet
Lars Kepler's novel is an exercise in political analysis – national and international bureaucracies, treaties and alliances – and classical music theory.
REVIEW
Mord i Havanna
Jan Mårtenson is a name that could feature alongside the several other Swedish crime novel authors who have gained a reputation in English translation.
REVIEW
De ensamma
Håkan Nesser’s crime novels featuring detective Van Veeteren have been translated into English. The stories about his latest detective, Gunnar Barbarotti, should be on the bookshelf of every English-speaking crime fiction fan.
Non-fiction
REVIEW
Vart tog all denna kärlek vägen?
Käbi Laretei's slim volume offers rich pickings to the celebrity-hunter, the cinéaste and the classical musician alike. Sets of love letters like this will soon be a thing of the past. One imagines the leading auteurs of the twenty-first century prefer more ephemeral means of communication.