New Swedish Books. Autumn 2016 1
NEW SWEDISH BOOKS ANNELI JORDAHL LIKE THE DOGS IN
LAFAYETTE PARK Norstedts förlag Rights: Norstedts förlag Like the Dogs in Lafayette Park Despair makes us at once blind and insightful, angry and sad, obsessed to the point of exhaustion by that which is causing us pain. When Boris died in a workplace accident, Jeanette’s life became almost completely about documenting similar events. She is highly aware of class, since she herself is working class, while her daughter has made the journey to the middle classes. Angela Davis, the black feminist, civil rights activist, philosopher and university lecturer, is a leading light in Jeanette’s quest for fairness and respect for the people who are vulnerable and stigmatised by their hard, dangerous work. Anneli Jordahl’s novel Like the Dogs in Lafayette Park is a raging, powerful, intense and taut narrative of the daily struggle with oneself, one’s body, one’s environment and of putting the world to rights. 12