New Swedish Books, spring 2017 1
New Swedish Books 16 Blow The title Blow is a box
ing reference. For Fikirte and her father from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the sport is a way of keeping fit and letting off steam. Now they live in Sweden, and in a style that is at once restrained, poetic and matterof-fact, Blow describes the two worlds: Ethiopia and Sweden, and everything that divides them. There is a longing to return, but also, of course, an understanding of why the family cannot. Fikirte experiences, in a terrifying way, the hatred that can await new arrivals. The novel stays alive in the reader, as the language and narrative highlight the contrasts, making Fikirte and her family’s foreignness stand out in sharp relief. Lena Bezawork Grönlund (b. 1975) Blow Publisher Norstedts förlag info@norstedts.se www.norstedts.se Rights Norstedts förlag hakan.bravinger@norstedts.se Blow is Lena Bezawork Grönlund’s debut novel. She works as a librarian on the outskirts of Stockholm. Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden’s biggest newspapers, has predicted the novel will be a cultural highlight of 2017. Photo: Marie Genet Grönlund