Reviews

Sven Olov Karlsson's chronicle of rural Sweden.

Per Wästberg’s biographical novel of one of Carl Linné’s most inscrutable apostles.

Bo Carpelan's impressionistic description of the life of a small boy from infancy to 13 years of age in 1930s Finland.

Contrary to the conventional police drama, Jan Guillou's novel raises more questions than it answers, not only about the guilt or otherwise of those eventually convicted, but also about the destruction of aspects of democracy by the very processes that are supposed to protect it.

The protagonist of Malte Persson's historical novel, like a more solemn and scientifically-inclined Mrs. Dalloway, is surrounded by interesting individuals with stories of their own.

Erik Andersson's novel takes the reader on an odyssey through the province of Västergötland, aptly compared by one character to the Iowa corn belt in the United States.

When is an autobiography a novel? The question is relevant because Enquist’s book won the 2008 August Prize – in the fiction category.

Ellen Matsson's inheritance story is part psychological drama, part minutely-observed social history, part poetry.

Robert Åsbacka's novel on the search for art in everyday life, with characters who are ordinary people appreciative of Beckett’s plays and Baroque organ music.

The second volume in Tim Davys’s planned quartet.

Erik Helmersson's debut novel paints a detailed and dramatic picture of Iceland.

Henning Mankell’s novel is a fascinating and intriguing murder mystery. But it is also much more than that.

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.

Peter Birro mixes Strindberg’s own works with a biographical account.

Seasoned author Peter Kihlgård is bidding for our attention with an experiment in form.

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.

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.

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.