European Literature: Sweden

This week is all about Nordic fiction – Nordic Noir and all those stories of fables and more, writers who have only just been translated into English and others who remain, yet to be discovered.

With European Literature Network, we’re highlighting a few this week to tantalise your tastebuds for all things Nordic

Today’s sees Sweden as the highlighted country. So think it’s all Pippi Longstocking and Scandi Noir? There’s lots of shades of so many other things inbetween…

Nichola Smalley explains:

Sweden may be famous as the birthplace of the contemporary Scandi-crime wave, Pippi Longstocking and the Nobel Prize in Literature, but look a little closer and you will see a wealth of less famous but equally brilliant gems among the writers creating contemporary literary fiction and poetry.

Västerbotten

The comparative isolation of northern Sweden has produced some of the country’s most fascinating literature in recent years, often characterised by strange events and the creative use of local dialect. Two examples of this are writers native to Västerbotten, Torgny Lindgren and Stina Stoor. Lindgren sadly died earlier this year, but many of his books (Hash, The Way of a Serpent) have been translated into English by Tom Geddes. They capture a world of tight-knit communities and inexplicable but comic encounters.

Skåne

The southern region of Skåne has also produced some bold writers recently. This year’s winner of the August Prize, Sweden’s equivalent of the Booker, is Lina Wolff, with her novel The Polyglot Lovers, a work of comic genius and serious feminist intent that revolves around an ill-fated manuscript written by a fantastically egotistical male writer. If you can’t wait for that, her acclaimed debut novel Bret Easton Ellis and the  Other Dogs was published in English in 2016.

Gothenburg

Travelling up the western coast, we come to Gothenburg and Johannes Anyuru. Anyuru is a poet, but my favourite book of his (and the only one to have been translated into English – by Rachel Willson-Broyles in 2015) is the novel A Storm Blew in from Paradise

Stockholm

Heading east to Stockholm, we find Jonas Hassen Khemiri. His most recent novel in English (published in 2015) is Everything We Don’t Remember, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles. This portrait of a young man, told from multiple perspectives, speaks eloquently of the fragility of human relationships.

Per Olov..

Finally, I’d like to come to Per Olov Enqvist, one of Sweden’s most established writers, and one who has been translated into English many times.

This personal journey through Sweden’s contemporary literary landscape is no more than a snapshot, yet I hope it gives you an idea of the boldness and innovative spirit of writers working in a national context that has an international significance far beyond what might be expected of such a small country.

Nichola Smalley is Publicity, Marketing and Sales Manager at independent publisher And Other Stories. She’s also a translator and lover of Swedish and Norwegian literature, and an escaped academic. Her translations include Jogo Bonito by Henrik Brandão Jönsson, a Swedish book about Brazilian football, and How to Fall in Love with a Man Who Lives in a Bush by Emmy Abrahamson.

This is an adapted article which was first published in The Riveter, magazine from the European Literature Network

Tomorrow: Denmark!