2008:2
The poetry and prose of Mare Kandre
Editor: Sarah Death
Deputy Editor: Neil Smith
Reviews Editor: Henning Koch
(Image: Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash)
The summer of 2008 has been another period of change for Swedish Book Review albeit one perhaps not as immediately noticeable as the last significant change, in 2003, when SBR moved from its home of twenty years under the editorship of Laurie Thompson in Wales, to the University of East Anglia in Norwich where its current publisher, Norvik Press, has been based since 1986. With the closure this summer of the Scandinavian department in Norwich, Norvik Press is now pleased to be affiliated to University College London, home to a thriving and dynamic Scandinavian department.
The closure of the Scandinavian department in Norwich leaves just two universities in the UK teaching Scandinavian languages and literatures to degree level: University College London, and Edinburgh University. The decline in the number of school children opting to study "difficult" subjects like languages (now that language-study is optional in UK schools from the age of fourteen), and the loss of so many Scandinavian departments from universities in the UK over the past twenty-five years cannot but raise fears about precisely where future generations of UK translators from Swedish to English are going to come from.
Articles
FEATURE
Sensibility, Anguish and Humour
Eric Dickens examines the poetry and prose of Mare Kandre (1962-2005)
Translations
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Aliide, Aliide by Mare Kandre
A small girl lost in the world and experiencing for the first time the confusions and horrors of life.
Translated by Eric Dickens
Reviews
Compiled and edited by Henning Koch
Fiction
REVIEW
Någon annanstans i Sverige
Hans Gunnarsson is one of the best chroniclers of contemporary life in Sweden.
REVIEW
Den osynliga
Lise Indahl's first novel for young readers is much more than the ghost story it seems at first to be, as the mysteries that unfold all have their explanations in the concrete world and raise serious questions about social reality in contemporary Sweden.
REVIEW
Kicki & Lasse
Seasoned author Peter Kihlgård is bidding for our attention with an experiment in form.
REVIEW
Filologens dröm
Björn Larsson's short stories, set in the world of academia, are light-hearted, ironical Tales of the Joys of Discovery.
REVIEW
Kinesen
Henning Mankell’s novel is a fascinating and intriguing murder mystery. But it is also much more than that.
REVIEW
När tiden tog slut
Göran Sahlberg's exuberant yet wistful novel with its vivid, tragic-comic account of a very unusual childhood evokes an era when Sweden felt it stood centre-stage in the world.
REVIEW
Fem knivar hade Andrej Krapl
The five knives become the leitmotif of Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo's novel. One of these knives, which have ornately decorated handles, is carried in a rather unusual place: its blade is tucked into a hymn book which is, in turn, tucked down the back of the young woman’s trousers, causing abrasions on her back.
REVIEW
Orkanpartyt
Klas Östergren's novel based on Old Norse tales reimagines the gods as a Mafia-like clan.
Drama and screenplays
REVIEW
Invasion! Pjäser noveller texter
This book brings together plays, short stories and columns by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. The result is linguistic experimentation at its funniest.
Non-fiction
REVIEW
En dramatikers dagbok
The reader is drawn in by Lars Norén’s warts-and-all portrayal of a sensitive but self-centred artist battling with depression and a mid-life crisis.
REVIEW
En handfull regn
A literary confrontation with the fact of the suicide of a boyhood friend in the late 70s, this is the book Niklas Rådström spent thirty years not writing.
REVIEW
Lusten och dämonerna - Boken om Bergman
Mikael Timm's portrait of Ingmar Bergman through his work.