Reviews

The voices of writers and poets from across the Sámi lands of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia ring out with the clarity of reindeer bells in Sápmi from the Inside: Testimonies from Stolen Land.

In Seluah Alsaati’s Not Your Baby we meet Samira: star football player and burgeoning rapper, perhaps the next Cardi B. She knows who her friends are, and what she wants from a guy – three simple demands, nothing complicated. Then she meets Nabil, and her whole world is turned upside down ... and not totally for the better.

‘The absurd is a reality, he thought, forming a snowball between his hands, there’s no need to twist the text to find it, it’s there all the time.’ Year of the Black Moon, a delightful but troubling existential detective novel, follows a disillusioned scholar on an epic quest for clues and meaning when his normal life is derailed by concussion.

'Published author looking to buy an apartment in south Helsinki. Offer me a good price, and I’ll write you a book!’ So begins The Red Room, a novel about dominance, submission, manipulation, and the darker side of human relationships that unfortunately fails to fulfil its potential.

Margit Silberstein’s Children of the Holocaust is an important story to tell in today’s transcultural Sweden, as the discussion of migrant/postmigrant identity is an increasingly relevant topic in the political and cultural discourse.

An account of a remarkable court case against the most unlikely of criminal gangs – private home care providers – is followed by well-informed commentary, case histories and interviews in The Home Care Mafia. Finally, a piece of journalistic dynamite: a unique list, naming and shaming assorted provider organisations and local authorities.

An unconventionally told story of childhood in which photography and aesthetics play a major part, Shade and Breeze is an elusive but absorbing debut novel.

In In the Hall of Mirrors, Liv Strömquist asks where our obsession with appearance came from, and whether we should try to change the situation.

The Bridge Builders begins the tale of one family’s journey from a tiny village near Bergen in the late 1800s through the 1900s and into the new millennium.

The multi-talented Jonas Karlsson is back with New People in the Wrong Order, a new collection of short stories that steps away from the surrealism he is renowned for, but not the unpredictability.

Spoiler alert! This book will alter your perceptions of fake news, cancel culture and ‘experts.’ Olof Hallonsten’s The Critical Conscience of Modernity: A social science that is useful is both timely and necessary. Hallonsten tackles critics of social sciences head on to reject many of their criticisms.

In She Doesn’t Remember, a writer, psychologist and literary translator is inspired to write a moving, timely account of his mother’s dementia that will resonate with many readers outside Sweden.

A commentary on the reception of refugees in Sweden, told through the eyes of a young woman working with unaccompanied minors, The Afghan Sons is an award-winning novel with a sense of connection.

The Mystery of Helmersbruk Manor is a spooky but heart-warming Christmas mystery for middle-grade readers.

Hidden Gods: About Everything That Doesn’t Get Lost in a Translation explores the art of literary translation down the centuries with a delectably dry wit.

Disaster strikes in a small seaside community, bonding families and signalling the beginning of a succession of landmark events in their lives. In Nikky's Book Lidbeck explores the ways people deal with adversity, and its effects on friendships and relationships.

Fine art meets organised crime in Dawn. False., a gripping tale focusing on two female artists.

White Melancholy: An Analysis of a Nation in Crisis takes a timely look at Sweden’s shift from ethnic homogeneity to the more diverse society we see today.