2015:1

It is easy to find diverse reasons to be cheerful in our sphere of activity as 2015 gets underway. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, undeniably an opinion former, has started a book club for his 31 million followers and taken a New Year’s resolution to read a book every fortnight. One Swedish magazine recently went so far as to dub today’s book groups ‘a popular movement’. There was certainly a record turnout at my reading group this January and I learnt that there are no less than five such groups obtaining their books through my little branch library.

An Observer article (24 Aug 2014) quoted Harvill Secker’s publishing director Liz Foley: ‘There used to be a feeling translations were “good for you” and not enjoyable … like vegetables … But actually they’re wonderful books.’ Translator Daniel Hahn, in an interview in The Bookseller (6 Oct 2014) on becoming Chair of the Society of Authors, held up the translation sector as an example to emulate: ‘One of the main reasons for the generally buoyant mood in the translation world is that over the last few years it has become extremely collaborative, with broad networks of translators, publishers, funders, libraries etc, forming a really strong united community with individual interests but also mutual understanding’.

SBR’s own networks have helped us to assemble an impressive variety of material in this issue. Astrid Trotzig’s account of trying to combine her Swedish identity and her Korean one is as powerful as when first published in 1996. Christina Wahldén’s love story about a pupil of famous botanist Linnaeus is tender and tactile. Aino Trosell is an accomplished crime writer with a social conscience, who deserves to break through to the English-language market. A post-apocalyptic young adult thriller comes from the prolific pen of Sofia Nordin, Jonas Karlsson is the master of surreal, minimalist stories and there is a new departure for eminent poet, Lennart Sjögren. We also have reports from the Gothenburg Book Fair and the Tove Jansson centennial conference, plus a splendid array of reviews.

Exceptionally, this editorial is written in the first person, because it will be the last under the present editorship. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to edit SBR for the past eleven years. The journal is thriving and can look forward to a healthy future with a fresh editor and numerous new contributors, including many younger colleagues. So that is another excellent reason for good cheer.