Swedish Book Review

from The Heretics’ Temple | Swedish Book Review by Gabriella Håkansson, translated by Fiona Graham

'The Bone House was a sanatorium for the spiritually tormented.'

Read more from 'The Heretics’ Temple' by Gabriella Håkansson, translated by Fiona Graham here:

swedishbookreview.org/heretics-tem...

@albertbonniers.bsky.social @gabriellahakansson.bsky.social

from Europe | Swedish Book Review by Maxim Grigoriev, introduced and translated by Nichola Smalley

Full of a sense of expansiveness I put block after block behind me, or rather, within me, in a foreign, incomprehensible city, inhaling its monumental indifference.

'Europe', Maxim Grigoriev, tr. Nichola Smalley @albertbonniers.bsky.social @prototypepubs.bsky.social

swedishbookreview.org/europe-0

from The Thin Gods | Swedish Book Review by Aris Fioretos, translated by Tomas Tranæus

'They say the dead have no shadow. I became the one Jim left behind.'

🌇

Aris Fioretos's latest novel takes us from New York to Thatcher-era London, new-millennium Berlin and beyond.
Translated by Tomas Tranæus.

swedishbookreview.org/thin-gods

Gott nytt år 2026! 🎆

‘Place is, in a sense, everything to me’ | Swedish Book Review An interview with poet, translator, and scholar Iryna Shuvalova

‘Place is, in a sense, everything to me’

🌆

As part of our series of interviews on city writing, Ukrainian poet Iryna Shuvalova discusses the importance of place to her work.

swedishbookreview.org/iryna-shuval...

‘The fluidity of a city can be very overpowering, both to write and to experience.’ | Swedish Book Review An interview with writer Tone Schunnesson.

‘The fluidity of a city can be very overpowering, both to write and to experience’

🌆

Read an interview with writer Tone Schunnesson, interviewed by Alex Fleming in the latest issue of Swedish Book Review.

swedishbookreview.org/tone-schunne...

‘The city’s language is never fixed; it drifts, mutates, and gathers new meanings with every encounter’ | Swedish Book Review An interview with writer, poet and translator Nisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad

‘The city’s language is never fixed; it drifts, mutates, and gathers new meanings with every encounter’

🌆

As part of our series of interviews on city writing, Nisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad discusses the importance of place to her work.

swedishbookreview.org/nisrine-mbar...

2025:2 | Swedish Book Review A special issue on city writing, featuring works by Lyra Ekström Lindbäck, Aris Fioretos, Maxim Grigoriev, Gabriella Håkansson, Uta Staiger, Hjalmar Söderberg, Elisabeth Åsbrink and more.

We’re delighted to have co-curated the latest issue of the Swedish Book Review! 📚

This special issue on city writing features works by Lyra Ekström Lindbäck, Aris Fioretos, Maxim Grigoriev, Gabriella Håkansson, @ukstaiger.bsky.social and more.

swedishbookreview.org/2025-2

#Europe #CityWriting

Ann-Helén Laestadius, the Sámi Scheherazade | Swedish Book Review by Hakima Choukri

"Laestadius’s novel, and indigenous literature in general, teach us the power storytelling has to break the cycle of (trans)generational silence."

From Hakima Choukri's essay 'Ann-Helén Laestadius, the Sámi Scheherazade': swedishbookreview.org/ann-helen-laestadius-sami-scheherazade

from Backwater Beast | Swedish Book Review by Sven Olov Karlsson, translated by Alex Fleming

"The fields luxuriate in a furiously green hue. Nature appears tamed, or at least adequately conquered: a beast that has been persuaded to obey and produce."

From 'Backwater Beast' (Bygdedjuret) by Sven Olov Karlsson, translated by Alex Fleming.

swedishbookreview.org/backwater-be...

We agree! Something special.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the piece Emily - moving is certainly the word for it.

@iangiles.bsky.social

‘The Joy of Translating is Gone’ | Swedish Book Review by Yukiko Duke, translated by Ian Giles

"We were even so bold as to take time off from our working days to pick wild strawberries or go walking and swimming. It was all going so well! That was when we encountered a word – a small, sneaky word – that brought us crashing back down to earth."

swedishbookreview.org/joy-translat...

from An Endlessly Long Spring | Swedish Book Review by Lida Starodubtseva, translated by Kathy Saranpa

"Although you’re no monster, Teo, I thought. You’re a lemboj."

From 'An Endlessly Long Spring (En oändligt lång vår) by Lida Starodubtseva, translated by @ksaranpa.bsky.social. Read the rest of the extract here in the latest issue:

swedishbookreview.org/endlessly-lo...

from Epos | Swedish Book Review by Ellen Nordmark, translated by Gina Abelkop

beauty itself draws the veil away
uncovers itself
it isn’t up to you

🏺

Ellen Nordmark's ambitious poetic epic interrogates the cosmos, underworld, and current global political landscape through the intermingling of contemporary tragedy and ancient mythologies.

swedishbookreview.org/epos

@albertbonniers.bsky.social

from The Game | Swedish Book Review by Jörgen Gassilewski, translated by Jane Davis

"The longer she gets to sit there, the more she understands. She can understand with her hands. She can understand with her feet. She can understand with her smelling, the smells. And that’s bigger than everything."

- 'The Game' by Jörgen Gassilewski, trans. Jane Davis.

swedishbookreview.org/game

from Pride of Lions | Swedish Book Review by Linda Jones, translated by Alice Menzies

“They were everything I wasn’t, and that’s why I loved them."

Pride of Lions (Lejonflock) is a layered text about complex questions of revenge and responsibility, viewed through the prism of secondary-school friendships.

Read Alice Menzies' translation here: swedishbookreview.org/pride-lions

Dressed for Chair No 7 | Swedish Book Review by Sara Danius, introduced and translated by Darcy Hurford

"Pär Engsheden had completed his dress trilogy. Which is what it was in the end: a literary silk fantasy in three acts; a colourful triptych made of textiles."

Read Sara Danius' essay, translated by @darcyhu.bsky.social.

swedishbookreview.org/dressed-chai...

@albertbonniers.bsky.social

2025:1 | Swedish Book Review Featuring works by Sara Danius, Yukiko Duke, Jörgen Gassilewski, Linda Jones, Sven Olov Karlsson, Ellen Nordmark, Lida Starodubtseva and more.

SBR 2025:1 is now live! Featuring works by Sara Danius, Yukiko Duke, Jörgen Gassilewski, Linda Jones, Sven Olov Karlsson, Ellen Nordmark, Lida Starodubtseva and more.

swedishbookreview.org/2025-1

Photo credit: Maureen Eijpe on Unsplash