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Hi all!


In the last two months of 2022 we will be reading literature from Sweden.

Titles for all three categories (classic, contemporary and short story/essay) can be nominated in this thread.

Feel free to discuss availability here as well, i.e. let us know beforehand if a nominated title is unavailable for you before we put up the polls. The polls will be set up in the middle of October.

Hi all!
The last two months of the year are approaching and will take us to Sweden, a country well known for its crime writers and authors of children's books :))
So feel free to nominate titles you would like to read and discuss in this thread!

Oooh - being from just across the water in Denmark, could I just throw in a handful of ideas, just to get the proces started, more than a nomination as such, maybe?

THE crime fiction classic dynamic duo, who pretty much kicked off socially critical crime fiction trend of the nordic countries: Sjöwall & Wahlöö /series/5380...
Staying with genre fiction - here's the Swedish James Bond aka Hamilton by Jan Guillou: /series/5454...
Even more genre fiction: Scifi (and newer) The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

The first ever female Nobel Prize recipient in 1909 (that's sadly still a very small club), and she's a great writer: Selma Lagerlöf

And speaking of the Nobel - this non-fiction work details the journalistic work that led to the exposure of the MeeToo scandal in the Swedish Academy (and ultimately a destabilisation of the institution that awards the Nobel Prize for Literature) Klubben (though oddly it seems to be out in a lot of languages, but maybe not in English?)

More feminism (well it IS Sweden!) and very funny: the graphic novels of Liv Strömquist (Widely available across Europe: Kunskapens frukt about the taboo of menstruation and the vulva in society has also been translated into Dutch, Danish, German, Finnish, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovene and Ukrainian.)

Speaking of funny - one of the funniest books ever: from way up north where the Swedes speak Finnish: Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi

And by a Swede about the Danish royal court (power, love, and madness in 1760s): The Royal Physician's Visit by Per Olov Enquist

Well and then there's the classic male author/playwright: August Strindberg
And the finally, the children's author to rule them all Astrid Lindgren

For a classic, I suggest The Serious Game by Hjalmar Söderberg, first published in 1912. Translated by Eva Claeson. For an alternative to Strindberg.

For short stories, I suggest Nordic Fauna, a collection of 6 stories set in the north of Sweden and written by Andrea Lundgren and translated by John Litell. It is the first in The Metamorphoses Series, 2021, from Peirene Press.

For contemporary literature, I suggest To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi; translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner. It takes place in summer 1852 in a small village in Sweden.

@anetq, your message hadn’t loaded when I’d drafted mine. Michael Niemi is on both our brains, apparently:)

I'd like to nominate The Saga of Gösta Berling for a classic.

Anetq wrote: "Oooh - being from just across the water in Denmark, could I just throw in a handful of ideas, just to get the proces started, more than a nomination as such, maybe?

THE crime fiction classic dynam..."

Thanks a lot, Anetq, for your extensive list displaying such a variety of different genres and topics. There should definitety be something in for everyone interested in getting to know Swedish literature!
I remember the crime series by Sjöwall Wahlöö very well and liked it a lot.
I was not aware that the film Populärmusik från Vittula was based on a novel - the film was indeed hillarious!!
The Per Olov Enquist title is on my TBR :))

Carol wrote: "For a classic, I suggest The Serious Game by Hjalmar Söderberg, first published in 1912. Translated by Eva Claeson. For an alternative to Strindberg.

..."

I second all your nominations! I would very much like to read Hjalmar Söderberg for the classics (it would be my first Söderberg) and the short story collection is already on my shelf as I happen to support Peirene Press. As I already am familiar with Mikael Niemi's Populärmusik I would not mind reading To Cook a Bear!

Carolien wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Saga of Gösta Berling for a classic."

I started this one years ago but did not finish it... can't remember why though....

I would like to suggest The Wolf and the Watchman for contemporary literature.

Valerie wrote: "I would like to suggest The Wolf and the Watchman for contemporary literature."

This sounds like a real page-turner and should be widely available, too.

Carol wrote: "@anetq, your message hadn’t loaded when I’d drafted mine. Michael Niemi is on both our brains, apparently:)"
Vittula is one of my all time favorites!

Orgeluse wrote: "The Per Olov Enquist title is on my TBR :)..."

Well since I'm not alone, let me officially nominate Per Olov Enquist: The Royal Physician's Visit
It's been on my TBR forever, and it's supposed to be an excellent novel!

Thanks for the nomination, Anetq!

Hi all,

As I will set up the polls this Sunday further nominations will only be accepted till Saturday night!

The polls are up and voting starts tomorrow (GMT+1):

/poll/list/1...