New Swedish Books, spring 2017 1
65 Spring 2017 The Unfree The Unfree is a captiva
ting story of slavery and colonialism that mixes fiction with real historical events. At the centre there’s fifteen-year-old Matilda, who has grown up with her mother in Sweden. Now it’s the year 1790, her mother has passed away, and Matilda travels to the Swedish colony of St Barthélemy in the West Indies. When she first debarks she’s on cloud nine about being in her father’s presence and about the beauty of it all. But quickly her happiness is traded for something else. In her father’s house there’s the housekeeper Beatrijs and her twin sons Willem (Witte) and Pieter (Swarte). They’re identical apart from a slight difference in the nuance of their skin colour. Matilda quickly realises that the three of them are slaves, and that it’s exactly that difference in skin colour that decides how her father treats them. She detests it. But what can she do? Janne Lundström portrays Matilda and the spirit of her time with both knowledge and care. The Unfree has a poetic language and dives deeply into Matilda’s autobiography in a manner that’s unlike anything else that’s currently being published in Swedish Young Adult fiction. Janne Lundström (b. 1941) The Unfree Publisher Natur & Kultur info@nok.se www.nok.se Rights Koja agency carin.bacho@kojaagency.com Selected Works Den dödes dotter (Natur & Kultur 2010) Young Adult Flickan som var vacker i onödan (Natur & Kultur 2007) Young Adult Sagor. Afrikanska dilemmasagor illustrated by Karin Södergren (Bonnier utbildning 2007) Factual Photo: Tariq Dajani