New Swedish Books, spring 2017 1
New Swedish Books 68 Walking Side By Side Walking
Side By Side is a debut novel about being almost grown up, and having your existence shattered by sudden death and paralysing grief. How do you cope with it? What’s left of you? At the centre there’s Alexandra and her relationship with her best friend Krzysztof. They’ve known each other since secondary school. Now they’re in their twenties and feel like brother and sister when the unspeakable happens, and it changes everything. Susanna Martelin writes with great perception about grief, how it takes hold of your body and invades almost every corner of your life. In the background there’s also the interesting and animated theme of the stable where Alexandra works. The horses she takes care of have problems and need to be ‘fixed’. It is poignant and obvious from her connection with the horses that they are fixing Alexandra in return. Publisher/rights Alfabeta bokförlag annakaisa.danielsson@alfabeta.se www.alfabeta.se Susanna Martelin was the winner of Lilla Augustpriset in 1998 with her short story Att frigöra en fjäril. Walking Side By Side is her first novel. Susanna Martelin (b. 1980) Walking Side By Side Photo: Frida Selven