New Swedish Books, spring 2017 1
New Swedish Books 14 Jörgen Gassilewski (b. 1961)
Velocity Publisher Albert Bonniers förlag info@abforlag.bonnier.se www.albertbonniersforlag.se Rights Albert Bonniers förlag helena.ljungstrom@albertbonniers.se Selected Works Göteborgshändelserna (Albert Bonniers förlag 2006) Novel Kärleksdikter (Albert Bonniers förlag 2009) Poetry pärla barbie klistermärke Vi hade vi inte. Kommer inte att. Skulle komma att. Kunde inte tro att. Visste inte att. (Albert Bonniers förlag 2012) Poetry Velocity The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was an almost incomprehensible event: how could it happen, and how could the rest of the world more or less just look on? The chain of events that spring and summer were complex. Over a short space of time, a political power struggle turned the Hutus against the Tutsis, former friends and neighbours against each other, and adults against children, in a bloody chaos. In the stark novel Velocity, the poet and novelist Jörgen Gassilewski has captured much of this: people’s simultaneously angstridden and almost absent-minded indifference to their own actions, the blur of events. A handful of people centred around young Marie-Louise and her husband, appear to outsiders to be ‘evil’ and yet ‘normal’. In them, we see the dark, terrifying space within all of us – it is impossible to forget these characters. Photo: Caroline Andersson