Reviews

An opportunity to reassess Stig Dagerman's novel.

The tradition of Swedish worker literature is currently in revival; Maria Hamberg's novel continues that revival.

Anne Swärd’s novel is beautifully written, in controlled, evocative, at times aphoristic language; there is writing to savour on every page.

The second instalment in Alexander Ahndoril’s planned trilogy of novels based loosely on the lives of three living Swedes.

The most recent in a sequence of enigmatic, monographic novels by Magnus Florin.

Birgitta Stenberg has written an inventive autobiographical hybrid which subverts the genre.

It is difficult to read Maja Lundgren’s new novel without being strongly aroused by it.

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.

The third in Johan Theorin’s quartet of novels set on the island of Öland.

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.

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.

Lars Kepler's novel is an exercise in political analysis – national and international bureaucracies, treaties and alliances – and classical music theory.

Jan Mårtenson is a name that could feature alongside the several other Swedish crime novel authors who have gained a reputation in English translation.

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.

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.

Gabriella Ahlström's first novel for adults is unlike other popular contemporary Swedish books in its focus on character over plot, and readers can appreciate its minutely detailed portrait of a woman who is constantly disappointed by her family and aware of their many faults and yet remains faithful and devoted to them.

Fans of the Persepolis graphic novels will surely be charmed by Marjaneh Bahktiari's feisty young female characters.

Eva-Stina Byggmästar's poems are about the joy of writing poetry, of being a poet, of what poetry is and means.