Reviews

The Katitzi books expose readers to a way of life and to a period of harsh and disturbing stereotyping and discrimination of the Romani people that many may not know much about.

This is the kind of book likely to elicit the attention of gatekeepers in the world of YA fiction.

In this biography of Katarina Taikon, one of the twentieth century’s foremost advocates for human rights in Sweden, Lawen Mohtadi weaves together general Romani history, Taikon’s family background, Taikon’s own story, depictions of life in Romani camps, and Mohtadi’s own experiences researching and writing this book.

Jessica Schiefauer’s thorough examination of neo-Nazis, hate crime and homoeroticism resists simplification and reminds us of the thin line we all tread when we choose how to treat each other.

That magical, belly-flipping fizz of first love.

A particular strength is his description of how someone in a crisis observes small and seemingly unimportant details and clings to them, to protect himself or herself against a greater evil.

‘How grandiose, eccentric, depressive, suicidal, bizarre, queer or sexually affirmative can a woman be before she is labelled insane?’

A carefully made documentary in print: two skilful communicators have joined forces to stimulate readers into learning more about their special subject.

Maria (Mary to her friends), a 23-year-old architecture student, has just discovered that she is expecting a baby.

What remains from Ray Bradbury’s story is an existential ambivalence about the end of a life, and of the novel itself in the face of inevitability.

Now Masha, Tolstoy’s favourite child, comes into focus, completing the Russian triptych.

Something rotten at the heart of the Finland-Swedish academic and literary establishment.

A secret concealed in the communal laundry: a tub full of pulsating black goo that craves blood and offers in return irresistible mystical transports.

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’.

Virdborg’s whole book can be read as a descent into hell.

A novel of violence and feelings.

It’s a kind of community rarely portrayed in literature.

Alsterdal has been carving out a niche as a writer of page-turners with a political, international flavour.