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facts about sweden | Literature
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Photo: Thomas Karlsson, Anna-Lena Ahlström, Anette Nantell
Jens Lapidus, Åsa Larsson and the couple behind the pseudonym Lars Kepler – Alexander and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.
Literature:
Crime and social criticism
Swedish is one of the ten most translated languages in the world when it comes to works of fiction.
Between 2006 and 2010, more than 3,300 titles were translated into other languages.
International interest has been aroused primarily by crime writers such as Stieg Larsson and
Henning Mankell. They have maintained a classic tradition in Swedish literature, based on
a critical appraisal of contemporary society.
Sales of Swedish novels abroad have
increased dramatically in recent years.
Total revenue has risen from around
SEK 60 million (USD 8.5 million, EUR
6.6 million) per year in the 1990s to
­approximately SEK 150 million per year
in both 2010 and 2011. In Sweden, the
list of literary agents working mostly to
sell rights on foreign markets has grown
considerably since the 1990s. Today,
Swedish literature is translated into
around
50 languages, primarily Danish, German, Norwegian, Finnish, English, Dutch
and Polish. Half the books translated
belong in the ‘Nordic Noir’ genre – also
known as Scandinavian Crime Fiction.
But even before crime took over,
Swedish novels were popular internationally. Widely translated authors such
as Kerstin Ekman, Marianne Fredriksson
and P.O. Enquist achieved considerable
success in the 1980s and 1990s. At its
height, Fredriksson’s book Anna, Hanna
and Johanna was the fourth most-sold
book in the world.
Paving the way
The pioneers of modern Swedish crime
fiction are Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö,
who between 1965 and 1975 wrote ten
novels featuring detective Martin Beck.
Their books were the first in the genre
to analyze the challenges of a developing society from the perspective of those
left behind in the modernization process.
Sjöwall and Wahlöö paved the way for
the rich flora of Swedish crime novels
written since, many of which have been
made into films or TV series.
The tradition that originated with
Sjöwall and Wahlöö is clearly evident in
Henning Mankell’s books about Inspector Kurt Wallander. Mankell opened the
door to the international market, and
the social criticism in his novels was
an important reason for their success.
His books have sold more than 40 million copies and been translated into 40
languages. They have also been filmed,
both in Swedish and in the British television series starring Kenneth Branagh.
One of the best illustrations of the
Swedish crime fiction phenomenon
is the Millennium trilogy (Milleniumtrilogin). Stieg Larsson’s series created
an instant sensation worldwide and
came to top bestseller lists in many
countries. Larsson, who died in 2004,
shared many personal traits with his he- „
facts about sweden | Literature
sweden.se
Photo: Dan Hansson/SVD/Scanpix
Did you know?
Popular libraries
Sweden has a robust library
culture, with some 1,300 libraries scattered around the country.
Ninety-eight per cent of all Swedes
have visited a library at some
point. On an average day, the
average Swede spends 21 minutes
reading a book, 38 minutes reading a newspaper or magazine, and
68 minutes on the internet.
Successful Swedish
fantasy
The Circle (Cirkeln) is a Swedish
fantasy book from 2011, the first
in a trilogy about teenage witches written by Mats Strandberg
and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. It has
proved highly popular among
adults as well, despite having been
marketed as a book for young
readers. The book has been translated into English and is scheduled
for translation into 20 more languages.
Literary tourism
Sweden has a wealth of sites to attract literary tourists. They can for
instance join the Millennium Tour,
which points out key locations and
settings described in the novels
by Stieg Larsson. The Wallander
tours in Ystad in the south of Sweden are also popular.
Photo: Christine Olsson
Interest in ebooks is growing in Sweden.
ebooks
Sales of ebooks in Sweden doubled between 2010 and 2011 but
still represent only a fraction of
publishers’ annual turnover. The
largest share of ebooks is bought
by public libraries. Each year, the
libraries lend some 20,000 ebooks
and 1,400 audiobooks to borrowers, via Elib, the Scandinavian distributor that dominates the Swedish ebook market.
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The author couple Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg’s first book about a
group of teenage witches is scheduled for translation into more than 20 languages.
„ ro, Mikael Blomkvist, including being an
investigative political reporter. The Millennium trilogy has been filmed twice, once
by Sweden and once by Hollywood.
Leif G.W. Persson and Liza Marklund
also weave social criticism into their
books. Persson, a criminologist, is one of
Sweden’s most established crime writers.
Many of his cases touch upon the 1986
murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof
Palme, and a frequent theme is incompetence and corruption among police officers, civil servants and politicians.
Marklund made her debut in 1998 with
Deadline (Sprängaren), the first book in
a series of nine about the investigative
reporter Annika Bengtzon. Marklund has
inspired other women to write crime fiction and their number has increased dramatically since her debut. Between 1991
and 1997, there were only two crime novels written by women released. In 2012,
there were over 20.
One of the most successful women
crime writers is Camilla Läckberg. Since
her debut in 2003 with The Ice Princess
(Isprinsessan), she has sold 5 million
books in 30 countries.
Other international successes
Other writers who have found success
abroad are Håkan Nesser and Arne Dahl.
Nesser’s The Mind’s Eye (Det grovmaskiga nätet), published in 1993, was the first
in the Maardam series, ten books about
Inspector Van Veeteren. Arne Dahl is a
pseudonym for Jan Arnald. Dahl has written a series of eleven novels about the
A-group, a special unit in the Swedish
police dealing with international crime.
The series has been translated in 20 languages and five of the books have been
filmed.
Åke Edwardson’s novels about Inspector Erik Winter have been translated
into some 20 languages, and several
have become movies. Åsa Larsson
made her mark in the world of crime fiction starting with her debut novel Sun
Storm (Solstorm), the first in a series of
books about lawyer Rebecka Martinsson.
Marie Jungstedt first became known
in 2003 with Unseen (Den du inte ser).
Since then she has written ten books
about Police Inspector Anders Knutas.
Her novels have been translated into
more than 15 languages, and also given
rise to a German TV series.
Karin Alvtegen’s five books have established her reputation worldwide, with
translation rights sold in 30 countries.
Her second book, Missing (Saknad), has
been made into a British TV miniseries.
Jens Lapidus has been tremendously
successful with three novels set in the
criminal underworld and in a fast-paced,
young and hip Stockholm. The novels
have been sold to 30 countries and have
also generated a trilogy of films.
Under the pseudonym of Lars Kepler,
Stockholm couple Alexander and Alex­
andra Coelho Ahndoril have written
grim, nightmarish thrillers. The first,
The Hypnotist (Hypnotisören), was released in 2009. It has been sold to 23
countries and has also been made into
a movie. n
facts about sweden | Literature
sweden.se
Photo: Skånereportage
Must-read Swedish books
April Witch
(Aprilhäxan)
by Majgull Axelsson, 1997
The Serious Game
(Den allvarsamma leken)
by Hjalmar Söderberg, 1912
Gösta Berling’s Saga
(Gösta Berlings saga)
by Selma Lagerlöf, 1891
The Hundred-Year-Old Man
Who Climbed Out of the
Window and Disappeared
(Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann)
by Jonas Jonasson, 2009
Working-class author Vilhelm Moberg’s novels about Swedes emigrating to the US
was made into a movie in 1971.
The People of Hemsö
(Hemsöborna)
by August Strindberg, 1887
Fiction steeped in tradition
Let the Right One In
Swedish writers have long been good storytellers. Authors
such as August Strindberg and Selma Lagerlöf have left
an indelible mark.
(Låt den rätte komma in)
by Johan Ajvide Lindqvist, 2004
Simon and the Oaks
(Simon och ekarna)
by Marianne Fredriksson, 1985
Let Me Sing You
Gentle Songs
(Nu vill jag sjunga dig milda sånger)
by Linda Olsson, 2006
The Road
(Vägen till Klockrike)
by Harry Martinson, 1948
Popular Music
from Vittula
(Populärmusik från Vittula)
by Mikael Niemi, 2000
Photo: Robin Haldert
Mikael Niemi.
Among the classic writers of the 20th
century best known for their accounts of
working-class life are Eyvind Johnson,
Ivar Lo-Johansson, Vilhelm Moberg,
Artur Lundkvist, Harry Martinson, Jan
Fridegård, Moa Martinson and Elin
Wägner. Moberg was widely acclaimed
for The Emigrants (Utvandrarna), a series
of novels about Swedes who migrated
to the US in the mid-19th century. Wägner’s themes include women’s rights,
women’s suffrage, and peace and environment issues, and paved the way for
Swedish feminist fiction.
In the 1960s, political activism increased in Sweden and documentary
novels became popular, with P.O. Enquist
and Sara Lidman the leading names.
Two other prominent writers of social
critique are P.C. Jersild and Jan Guillou.
Jersild tends to write idea-based novels,
such as House of Babel (Babels hus), in
which he criticizes industrial-scale hospital care. His latest book, Ypsilon, was
published in 2012. Guillou, who is also a
journalist, is a controversial polemicist.
As an author he is best known for his
books about Swedish agent Carl Ham-
ilton, and his historical novels about the
Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. Both series have been filmed.
Kerstin Ekman penned a series of novels about working-class women, of which
the first part, Witches’ Rings (Häxringarna) came out in 1974. Among her other
leading works are Blackwater (Händelser
vid vatten) and a trilogy, The Wolfskin
(Vargskinnet), about social development
in northern Sweden. Ekmanwas elected
a member of the Swedish Academy in
1978, but left in 1989 in protest at its failure to support Salman Rushdie over the
Satanic Verses controversy.
Torgny Lindgren is a member of the
Swedish Academy and his books have
been translated into 30 languages. His
breakthrough came in 1982 with The Way
of a Serpent (Ormens väg på hälleberget),
which describes life in Västerbotten, in
northern Sweden, at the end of the 19th
century.
Journalist and author Majgull Axelsson has written numerous documentary
books about the developing world. Her
first novel, Far away from Nifelheim (Långt
borta från Nifelheim), came out in 1994. „
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facts about sweden | Literature
The Swedish Academy
An independent cultural institution
founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. Its
official task is to advance the Swedish
language and Swedish literature.
The Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is the legacy of Sweden’s Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). In his
will, he delegated the task of selecting the Literature prizewinners to the
Swedish Academy. The first Nobel
Prizes were awarded in 1901.
Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer
was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 2011. Other Swedish writers who have won the Nobel Prize are
Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Pär Lagerkvist,
Nelly Sachs (German-Swedish), Eyvind
Johnson and Harry Martinson.
The August Prize
One of Sweden’s most celebrated and
prestigious literary prizes, it is awarded each November in three categories:
Best Swedish Fiction Book of the Year,
Best Swedish Non-Fiction Book of
the Year, and Best Swedish Children’s
Book of the Year.
The Swedish Crime
Writers’ Academy
Established in 1971 to promote the
writing of crime fiction, the academy
awards several prizes, including one
for the Best Swedish Crime Novel.
„
Gellert Tamas is a Swedish journalist and author of several works of nonfiction, the best-known being The Laser
Man – A Story About Sweden (Lasermannen – En berättelse om Sverige). It
tells of John Ausonius, a convicted racist murderer who shot at eleven people
with immigrant backgrounds, killing one,
in the early 1990s.
Katarina Mazetti has written books in
different genres. Several of them have
been filmed and many have been translated into numerous languages. Her
book Benny & Shrimp (Grabben i graven
bredvid), from 1999, is about an odd
love affair between an intellectual librarian and a simple farmer. In France, the
book has sold 450,000 copies and is currently being produced as a play.
Susanna Alakoski was born in Finland
but grew up in Skåne, southern Sweden. Her debut novel, Beyond (Svinalängorna), was made into both a film
and a play, and has sold over half a million copies. It describes life in southern
Sweden in the 1960s, in a culture where
alcoholism was rife.
Carl-Johan Vallgren has won a
number of awards for his books, which
have been sold to 25 countries. Horrific
Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercule Barefoot (Den vidunderliga
kärlekens historia) is the novel that has
achieved the greatest success interna-
Photo: Sandra Qvist/Scanpix
Learn more
sweden.se
Jonas Hassen Khemiri.
tionally. Jonas Gardell has published 18
books, the most recent being Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar: 1. Kärleken. The
first of a trilogy of books, it describes
when AIDS came to Stockholm in the
1980s. Jonas Hassen Khemiri made his
debut in 2003 with the book One Eye Red
(Ett öga rött) about Halim, a teenager
with Moroccan parents, growing up in
Stockholm. Written in ‘immigrant patois’,
it deals with such problems as ethnicity,
roots and the importance of language for
a person’s identity. n
Useful links
augustpriset.se The August Prize
biblioteksforeningen.se Svenska biblioteksföreningen: The Swedish Library Association
The Göteborg book fair
The annual book fair in Göteborg
(Gothenburg) is the biggest meeting
place in the Nordic region for both the
book trade and the library sector. It
takes place in September and in recent
years has attracted some 100,000 visitors each time.
bokmassan.se Göteborgs bokmässa: The Göteborg Book Fair
deckarakademin.se Svenska Deckarakademin: The Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy
forlaggare.se Svenska förläggarföreningen: The Swedish Publishers’ Association
kulturradet.se Kulturrådet: The National Council for Cultural Affairs
nobelprize.org Official Website of the Nobel Prize
svenskaakademien.se Svenska Akademien: The Swedish Academy
Copyright: Published by the Swedish Institute. February 2013 FS 22.
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