Reviews

'... it illuminates, with heartbreaking clarity, reality as lived by the individuals who fall through the gaps in international treaties and EU conventions'

What do men want? How is it possible to fulfil their desires, based on their dream of what a woman should be? And how can you escape a marriage that is not your own, but your parents’?

The scandal, according to Kärnstrand and Andersson Åkerblom, is that the same problems have dominated the industry for decades and show little sign of changing.

The second installment in Charlotte Cederlund’s Idijärvi trilogy, a magical YA fantasy that follows teenage misfit Áili in her fight to save her Lapland village from the destructive supernatural forces of the evil Borri noaidi.

Ann-Luise Bertell's debut is ‘A pocket-sized emigrant epic’

Anders Roslund & Stefan Thunberg's taut prose and changes in narrative perspective and tempo make for an intricate psychological drama that crackles on every page.

Agnes Lidbeck creates a layered protagonist whose passivity is actually an active choice. The title, which means ‘to comply’, but also ‘to find oneself’, neatly captures these aspects of the protagonist.

Johannes Anyuru's novel, a searing warning about a possible future, frames a strong message in breathtaking prose.

The question that starts the book is ‘What was the worst thing you experienced?’ Her answer is simple: ‘The moment I was separated from my parents.’

Elise Karlsson's third novel is a stylistically chilly, pared-back reflection on the workings of our present-day society.

Peter Sandström's Autumn Apples is a masterpiece of understatement, a brilliantly laconic portrait of the sad vicissitudes of life.

'...the situation is hopeless ... Perhaps its serious nature will nonetheless lead us to something that we might almost be able to call hope.’

Former police officer Anders de la Motte's suspenseful crime novel was nominated Best Swedish Crime Novel Award by the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers.

To put it in the terms of her particular academic field, we might say she has entered her own Mannerist phase, her life descending into a grotesque caricature of itself.

Sara Lövestam's third novel about Kouplan, a transgender Iranian refugee turned private detective, is a subtle, humorous and immensely enjoyable read.

Charlotta von Zweigbergk's Fattigfällan (The Poverty Trap) is a social case history retold with passionate subjectivity.

Lena Frölander-Ulf's enchanting winter read is a thought-provoking exploration of confronting fears and preconceptions through encounters with whimsical forest folk and a homely troll.

Her novel holds up a distorted mirror and shows them that their writerly approach to women is not without consequence, as if to say ‘Here you are – this is what it looks like from where I’m standing’.