New Swedish Books. Autumn 2016 1
AUTUMN 2016 Un-unifying us The metaphor of the jo
urney of life is ancient and powerful. Sara Mannheimer’s new novel depicts, on the surface, a train journey from Stockholm to Gothenburg. The protagonist Sara (who, like the author, is a glass artist and an author) is travelling to visit her mother. Her parents divorced when Sara was a child and her relationship with them has always been full of conflicting emotions of guilt, anger and love. Sara Mannheimer’s novel Un-unifying us is a journey through life, but also a journey on other levels. It is a trip that passes through towns and through time, from childhood to adulthood, to becoming a parent oneself. Above all, Sara Mannheimer depicts a woman’s path to discovering herself, as she is now – in the midst of life in all its complexity and intractability – a life that in spite of everything holds light and possibility. “ It is a trip that passes through towns and through time, from childhood to adulthood, to becoming a parent oneself.” Sara Mannheimer UN-UNIFYING US Wahlström & Widstrand Rights: Agentur Literatur Gudrun Hebel Now Maxim Grigoriev NOW Albert Bonniers Förlag Rights: Albert Bonniers Förlag Cities are like labyrinths. Streets, lanes and back alleys twist and turn, confounding those who find themselves there. The world’s metropolises can seem to merge together into one dreamlike place. In Maxim Grigoriev’s second novel Now, a young man named Herman takes centre stage. He lives a very quiet life, but suddenly, his girlfriend stops returning his calls. Herman’s existence is transformed, he loses all conception of time, it’s as though everything becomes a single ʻnowʼ. He travels to Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, on the boundary 9 of what is real and what isn’t. In his debut Cities 2014 Maxim Grigoriev demonstrated his ability to unveil humanity’s true nature, its mysteriousness. In Now the concept of reality becomes complex, he gives shape to the realisation that in reality, life is strange.