Reviews
Curated and edited by Darcy Hurford
REVIEW
Inte din baby
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.
REVIEW
Den svarta månens år
‘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.
REVIEW
Röda Rummet
'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.
REVIEW
Förintelsens Barn
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.
REVIEW
Hemtjänstmaffian
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.
REVIEW
Skugga och svalka
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.
REVIEW
Inne i spegelsalen
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.
REVIEW
Brobyggarna (Det stora århundradet)
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.
REVIEW
Nya människor i fel ordning
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.
REVIEW
Modernitetens kritiska samvete. En samhällsvetenskap som gör nytta.
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.
REVIEW
Hon minns inte
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.
REVIEW
De afghanska sönerna
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.
REVIEW
Hemligheten i Helmersbruk
The Mystery of Helmersbruk Manor is a spooky but heart-warming Christmas mystery for middle-grade readers.
REVIEW
Dolda gudar: en bok om allt som inte går förlorat i en översättning
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.
REVIEW
Nikes bok
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.
REVIEW
Bellman. Biografin
After more than two hundred years, Sweden’s national poet finally has a literary biography. In Bellman. The Biography, Carina Burman sketches the life of Carl Michael Bellman in a lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched work.
REVIEW
Singulariteten
The Swedish word sorgearbete (mourning) evokes the work we do to process our sorrow. The Singularity, the latest novel from Kurdish-Swedish author Balsam Karam, is the embodiment of such work, and can only be described as lyrical, stirring, and immensely powerful.
REVIEW
Löpa varg
The Wolf Run, the latest novel by doyenne of Swedish literature, Kerstin Ekman, resonates with a wisdom deeply rooted in nature.